The Phantom Nevermore: New Moon Waltz
by LaughingLefou
Summary: With a roguish smile, a feathered coat and an audacious personality, a mysterious and charming Phantom Thief prowls the moonlit streets of Vale, seeking fame and fortune belonging not to him. Who is this masked man? Where will he strike next? And what is his connection to one Jaune Arc? The night is young, so let's have some fun... (Phantom Nevermore re-write.)
1. Prologue

**The Phantom Nevermore**

 **Prologue**

* * *

Coco Adel wasn't one for flights of fancy.

She prided herself on being a cool-headed, even tempered leader who could keep herself grounded when she needed to be, but wasn't afraid to relax and let her hair down metaphorically. To even suggest that she was the type to let stress get to her, even to the point of hallucinating was laughable to not only her, but to her team as well. However, as she and the rest of Team CFVY stood staring in disbelief at the scene before them, Coco was forced to admit that it was a possibility.

Either that, or one of her teammates had put acid in her morning oatmeal _again_.

A side glance to her partner, Velvet Scarlatina, told her otherwise. Much like herself, the rabbit Faunus looked like she couldn't believe her eyes. Behind the four Huntsmen who Coco led, a smattering of concerned murmurs and titters could be heard passing back and forth between the opulently dressed crowd who made up the party-goers on this particular evening. All eyes were on one person, one strangely dressed figure who stood above them, standing upon the crystalline chandelier which hung in the air, its fixtures throwing rainbows of light every which way.

"Oh my god…" Velvet murmured, her expression torn between bewilderment and shock. "He...he's real…"

"This has got to be some sort of joke…" Fox added, shaking his head. He might not have been able to see the thief, but his declaration and sudden appearance was absurd enough, even forgoing his physical qualities. Coco couldn't help but agree; the entire thing seemed too surreal to be actually true. The four of them had been tasked to protect a particularly large gathering taking place at the manor of one of the most prominent Vale Council members. A week prior, there'd been a great deal of concern over the appearance of a mysterious note, promising to, "Take the guest of honor," signed by a person known only as, 'The Phantom Nevermore.'

Most considered it a prank, but the wife of the Council Member had been so concerned, so worried, that she'd insisted upon having extra protection for the party to celebrate her acquisition of a particularly rare cut jewel known as the Crimson Heart. She'd feared for her safety, believing the figure to be a part of the White Fang, and that said figure would attempt to kidnap her. So with some pressure from the Council, Ozpin had allowed Team CFVY who'd been staying in Vale at Beacon over the summer break, to take the mission.

Yatsuhashi stepped forward, towering above the rest of the team, arms crossed. He looked relaxed, but Coco knew better. He was gearing up for a fight. "I'm afraid not, Fox. It appears as though the warning given was genuine…"

Coco started to speak, but was interrupted by a laugh from above. "Good evening, ladies and gentlemen! Thank you so very much for joining me tonight on this most momentous of occasions! You have the honor, the fortune and privilege of witnessing history in the making! As I'd promised you a week prior, I, the Phantom Nevermore, have arrived to abscond with the guest of honor this evening." The crimson red eyes of a Nevermore-styled, domino mask gleamed in the soft light. He was dressed in an ankle length, black long coat with a feathered collar, black crisp slacks that'd been ironed to perfection, shined black dress shoes, and from what Coco could tell at a distance, black anti-ballistic body armor. Someone who wasn't very fashion conscious might have called him sharp, or charismatic. Coco would have called him cheesy.

She didn't waste a minute. Collecting her thoughts as quickly as she could, Coco hefted her stylish looking handbag, bringing it before her as she hit a hidden switch. With a loud series of grinding gears and sharp clicks, the handbag transformed in less than a minute into a sizable minigun. Behind her, the murmurs of the crowd grew louder. "Velvet?"

"Yes?" Velvet murmured, not taking her eyes off of the blond haired, black-coated man who stood staring confidently down at the crowd.

"Stand by Mrs. Slate, make sure she's safe." Coco ordered, her tone quite business-like.

Velvet didn't answer, instead making her way behind Coco to seek their employee. "Excuse me, ma'am, please don't worry. We won't let anything happen to you." Coco could hear her teammate try and comfort the fairly heavyset, older woman while the crowd around spoke in scared, hushed whispers.

"What? D-don't touch me, you filthy fau-" Mrs. Slate began in an offended tone of voice. However, a sudden movement from above cut her off, and the crowd gasped as the Phantom Nevermore gave a flying leap, sailing gracefully in the air over not only Coco, Yatsu and Fox, but Velvet, Mrs. Slate, and the entire gathered party as well. Coco swore and tried to turn around on her heel, the weight and heft of her gatling gun making the movement much slower than she'd have liked.

There was a _clink_ as the Phantom landed behind them, the sound coming from his shoes hitting a glass case, below which sat the Crimson Heart itself, resting atop a red velvet pillow and lit up from below. With a wide smile, and a bow, the thief proceeded to hop down off of the glass case and pedestal, landing to the marble flooring below, and reached into his coat, pulling something out from within it, swiping at the case. The case shattered, sending glass all over and causing the back of the crowd to gasp and step back. In the man's hand, a particularly large, sleek, matte black hand cannon was held, its grip inlaid with ivory and crimson, reminiscent of a Grimm's coloration. His other hand reached forward, grasping the Crimson Heart and holding it up into the air, letting the light shine through the jewel's crimson colors, smiling from ear to ear.

"Well, well, well. I was expecting much more of a resistance." The Phantom murmured, his smile only growing. "It's almost like you don't even like our beautiful guest. Fair enough, I'll be _more_ than happy to take her off your hands…"

It was then that the truth of the matter hit Coco like a sack of bricks, her eyes widening behind her sunglasses. "He's not here for Mrs. Slate…"

"...he's here for the Crimson Heart!" Fox finished, rushing forward, tonfa blades extended. Yatsuhashi followed close behind, brandishing his sword. Coco waited, not wanting to start firing until she knew she wouldn't hit her teammates. As the two men of the team approached the thief, his smile grew to maximum smugness as he stowed the jewel into his coat and took a step back. Coco saw him withdraw what looked to be a high-tech canister, the look of a grenade registering, but before she could shout a warning to her teammates, the Phantom had already tossed it gently to the ground, causing it to bounce once, twice, three times between he and everyone else. There was a loud _fwhoomph_ and a sudden and painfully bright light filled the room, causing the party goers to cry out.

Coco swore under her breath, even as the crowd fell over themselves in their terror over the flashbang. Her vision was the least effected as she was protected by her sunglasses. Even still, the light had been incredibly bright, preventing her from being able to see what was happening for a second or two, and when she was able to rub the spots from her eyes, she noticed with a panic that the Phantom had vanished. Yatsu was blinded and while Fox would have been fine, he'd been close enough to the flashbang for the sound to have caused him to drop to a knee, clutching his ears and wincing in pain. It was the sound of Velvet's cry of surprise that had Coco wheel around once more, bringing her gun to bear.

During the flashbang, the Phantom had somehow ended up behind them all yet again, this time having put himself next to Velvet. She was held up on one of the Phantom's arms, as though he'd caught her from falling. "C'est magnifique...you're quite the beautiful jewel yourself, my lovely faunus Huntress. Maybe I should steal you instead? I've always had a thing for bunny ears…" The Phantom spoke in a low murmur, smiling the entire time while Velvet, unused to being flirted with, _especially_ by the enemy, could only sit blinking, cheeks burning red.

"Hey! Hands off the bunny!" Coco shouted, her command punctuated by the whine of the gatling gun's barrels starting to spin.

The thief seemed nonplussed, instead turning to Coco for a second, then back to Velvet. "Oh, you're taken? My apologies." With that, the Phantom proceeded to simply let Velvet go, causing her to fall to the ground with a _thud_ , the thief already moving away with Coco's weapon still trained on him.

"I'll thank you not to mis-handle my teammate. She's sensitive, you know." Coco quipped.

"Hey!" Velvet's indignant shout could be heard over the sound of the revolving weapon. She quickly got to her feet, cheeks still burning, but this time with an expression of anger on her face, embarrassment from having been caught off guard like she'd been. "And _you_! Hands off the jewel and in the air!" Velvet dropped a box onto the ground, and from it, a blue light shined, tracing the image of a gatling gun into the air and in Velvet's hands, aimed at the masked intruder.

The thief gave a 'hmm' of thought for a couple of seconds before shrugging and raising his hands. "With a weapon like your friend's, there, I suppose there's not much I can do. C'est la vie."

Coco blinked. "Huh. I was honestly expecting something more. It's nice to actually have someone smart for onc-"

"He's got another grenade!" Velvet cut her off, shouting in surprise. Coco's eyes flickered upward to see the Phantom's empty hands, then down to his feet, seeing only too late that balanced on the top of his foot, was a black canister. Her eyes flickered back to his hands, noting that one of them had a silver ring hanging on it. The grenade was tossed forward, and Coco began to open fire, the crowd behind her now screaming even moreso, blinded by the flashbang and now terrified by the sound of gunfire. Not that it mattered as the grenade itself had exploded in mid-air, sending a cloud of blinding white smoke in between the thief and the two girls. "No!" Velvet shouted, starting to open fire. Two streams of gatling gun fire crossed over each other as both girls blindly tried to fire upon the thief. After a few seconds of sustained fire, both girls paused.

"Is he…?" Coco murmured. She tried to listen for any signs, but it was hard to hear anything past the crowd behind her, who in their panic at the proceedings had begun to rush out of the room out the side door to the garden outside in an attempt to vacate the area. At once, both Velvet's and Fox's voice cut out through the noise though, having shaken the disorienting effects of the flashbang.

"He's getting away!" they yelled simultaneously.

Coco swore under her breath and hit the switch again to transform the unwieldy gatling gun back into its compact form, while Fox rushed forward past her, trying to catch up to the thief. Trusting in her two teammates to follow him, she paused to turn to Yatsuhashi. "Hey, big guy, you alright?"

"Y-yes. Forgive me, Coco." The larger man was blinking rapidly, still disoriented by the afterimages and swaying from the loud bang having thrown off his sense of balance.

"Hey, not your fault. This guy's a nuisance. Come on, if we don't hurry, we won't be able to get our licks in once Fox and Velvet's done with him." Coco grinned, got behind him and slapped him on the ass, causing the large man to jump slightly.

"Coco!" He chastised.

"Up and at 'em!" Coco's tone was playful, but her gaze over her sunglasses was serious and Yatsu hefted his blade, rushing forward with Coco on his heels, the two trying to catch up to their teammates and the mysterious thief…

* * *

 **[***]**

* * *

They caught up with their two teammates further inside the mansion, standing at the center of two intersecting hallways. Hearing their footsteps, both Fox and Velvet turned to face them. "Well, whoever he is, he's quick." Fox muttered with a touch of irritation in his voice. "Velvet and I thought we were right on his heels, but he's been leading us on one hell of a wild goose chase."

Velvet puffed her cheeks out and sighed. "We're getting nowhere. I've been listening out for him, but I'd swear he was in multiple locations at once."

"Relax, bun," Coco replied gently, "There's no way he's getting past us. Now let's all pick a direction and-"

"Giving up so soon? That's an awful pity…" A smug voice chimed in from the right and everyone turned to see the Phantom Nevermore standing arms akimbo at the end of the hallway, his ever present smile still etched onto his lips. "I was _so_ hoping we'd have a chance to play a little longer."

Everyone turned to him in surprise, and without so much a word, all four of them rushed at the thief, who gave a short, mocking bow, and disappeared around the corner. Team CFVY rushed down the hall and stopped at the end, looking both ways, only to find the hallway empty. "What the hell?" Coco breathed. The doors of the various rooms looked closed, and no footsteps sounded to direct their attention toward his method of egress.

"Going somewhere?" The Phantom's voice rang out behind them, and Team CFVY turned to find that The Phantom had somehow ended up on the complete opposite side of the hallway, all the way at the other end, smiling and waving as though he'd always been there.

"What?!" Velvet shouted, eyes widening. "How-"

"What part of _Phantom_ do you all not understand? Still care to try your luck?" The thief gleefully taunted.

Coco's gaze narrowed, her expression mirroring that of her now incensed teammates. A loud bang from nearby clued Coco in that Velvet had decided upon a faster form of ranged weaponry to reproduce, and a puff of drywall exploded nearby the thief's head as a recreated revolver bullet slammed into the wall. "This is your _last_ warning!" Velvet shouted. "Drop the jewels and come quietly!"

This only served to amuse the thief further though, and he chuckled. "Feisty, aren't we? I do so enjoy a girl with some spirit. The night is young, however, and I'm afraid as much as I'd love an evening with you, my dear Huntress, I'm afraid I've other plans. I hope you understand?" With that parting shot, the thief vanished behind yet another corner, leaving the entirety of Team CFVY in various states of frustration, the four of them once more giving chase.

Yatsu growled as they were led through hallway and corridor, past large stain glass windows and priceless antiques, all the while the thief continued to keep ahead of them, laughing gleefully. "Coco! He's heading for the roof!"

"He's probably got a Bullhead! We've got to stop him before he gets to it!" Fox added, rushing forward even faster than before, pushing himself to try and catch up to the thief.

Hallways turned into a staircase, with the thief leaping and swinging onto banisters, flipping onto landings and bypassing large sections of staircase as he made his way up to the top floor. Hot on his heels, Velvet and Fox kept on him, matching acrobatic parkour move for move. Fox managed to get just ahead of Velvet and with a push off of the banister, leapt at the Phantom, ready to strike at him with his tonfas. The thief, leaping backward off of his own railing, pulled out his hand cannon and took aim, the weapon roaring as he pulled the trigger. Fox's reflexes protected him from the shot, blocking it with the tonfa, but the force of the shot was enough to send him backward, sprawling across the marble staircase and hitting the landing hard enough to make the team collectively wince, then grow angrier.

"Ooh, bit of a nasty spill, that," The thief winced in mock sympathy, shaking his head. "I hope you didn't think things were going to be _that_ easy, did you?"

Yatsu's eyes narrowed, and he crouched down, then with a heave powerful enough to crack the marble flooring of the landing he was on, jumped up two flights of stairs, swinging his massive sword in a wide arc. A gust of wind from the sheer force of the swing issued forth, and even the Phantom found himself having to crouch down to withstand the force of the blow. This gave Velvet just enough time to catch up as well, one of her long legs swinging outward in a lightning quick roundhouse. The Phantom ducked, then brought his arms up to catch her axe-kick that forced him to one knee.

Velvet raised her leg once more to continue her barrage, but the moment she'd let pressure up off of the thief, he sprang forward and grabbed her by the waist, flipping her up over his shoulder and behind his back, causing her to fall down the center of the staircase. "Coco!" Yatsuhashi cried out, leaning out to catch the Faunus in mid-fall.

"Oof! Thanks, Yatsu." Velvet replied.

"Need a leg up?" Yatsu asked. Velvet nodded and Yatsuhashi, with a slight effort, tossed the rabbit Faunus back up into the air, letting her grab onto the railing another couple of flights above them and flip back onto the staircase, once more hot on the heels of the Phantom, who'd already started moving. The sound of a door being thrown open alerted the entire team to the fact that the Phantom had reached the rooftop.

Moments later, CFVY spilled out onto the rooftop into the cool, Valean night air. Standing before them at the edge of the rooftop, the Phantom stood, smirking smugly as usual. Coco noticed with relief that no vehicle had been in wait for him, but she'd found quickly that the thief was too tricky to take lightly. "End of the line, thief!." Yatsu intoned, dragging his sword across the rooftop and bringing it around before him. On either side of him, the rest of CFVY prepared their arsenal as well, the action punctuated by the whine of Coco's gatling gun starting up.

The Phantom, however, shook his head. "Oh dear, oh dear. You know, it never ceases to amaze me, really. I haven't been doing this very long, but you'd be surprised as to how often this becomes an issue…"

"Captured often?" Coco replied, just loud enough to be heard over her weapon.

Her answer was a laugh. "Oh no, no, mon cherie. The issue is just how many people seem to forget the definition of _Phantom Thief_. It isn't just a fancy title, mes amis. Like a ghost, I am not simply stealthy, nor can I just appear wherever…" The thief grinned and gave a little hop backwards to stand on the edge of the roof. The mansion itself was a sizeable building, standing at an impressive five stories, plus the raised platform for bullheads to land upon. Wind whistled and blew the thief's coat around him dramatically as he spread his arms and finished, "...but much like a phantom, I too can vanish without a trace…"

Fox, Velvet and Yatsuhashi started to rush forward, Coco pulling the trigger of her gatling gun to send a spray of gunfire in the thief's direction, but it was all for naught. The thief fell backward off the ledge and into the Valian night air. Fox and Velvet arrived at the edge at the same time and peered over the edge.

"He...he's…"

Fox finished Velvet's meek reply. "He's gone!"

Coco and Yatsuhashi caught up, Coco's gun still spinning. "Fox, are you getting anything?"

He shook his head, turning to Coco, his expression filled with disbelief. "No sounds, no Aura, nothing. He's not there anymore…"

Coco began to speak, when the sudden sound of rotor blades caught their attention, and she turned around to see a black Bullhead rising from the other side of the roof, and hanging from a rope ladder was the Phantom himself, smiling widely. "Ta-da! I do hope you all enjoyed tonight's show! Don't feel quite so bad, I'll take _very_ good care of the Crimson Heart. For now though, I must bid you all adieu. _Au Revoir!_ " the thief cheerfully crowed.

Coco growled and aimed her gatling gun up at the Bullhead, but the thief threw his arm in her direction, and when she pulled the trigger, there was a loud whine as the barrels suddenly froze in place. "What?!" Coco looked down the length of the gun to notice that sticking in a manner that had locked up the blades, was a long, thin throwing knife, forged in the shape of a feather. She reached forward to try and pull it out, but the blade had become bent due to being lodged in the inner workings of her weapon. "Damn it! Velvet?!"

"I'm sorry, I only had the one picture, Coco!" Velvet lamented, watching as the Bullhead pulled away from the mansion, quickly flying away into the distance and leaving the team atop the roof, defeated.

There was silence, broken only by the wind. A few moments later and Coco sighed. "Great. Just great. Just who _was_ that lunatic?"

"His identity isn't the only concern, Coco." Yatsu's deep voice cut in. "I can only fear that this may be only the first of his crimes here in Vale. We should count our blessings in that no one besides us had been harmed during this heist."

"He's got a point, Coco." Velvet added.

Coco raised her glasses up her nose, the tinted lenses hiding her glare as she stared up into the empty night sky. "Bastard. Come on, guys. Let's…" she groaned. "Let's give 'em the bad news…"

* * *

 **A/N: Hey folks! LaughingLefou back with the introduction to our avian themed Phantom Thief, and what better way to start things off than with a heist! I'm going to try and keep a few things under wraps, and reveal them as the story goes on. What's his Semblance? Why is he a thief? Etc. Hopefully this will satisfy a few cravings, and when we start next chapter, we'll be jumping into things proper with one Jaune Arc's first day at Beacon Academy, but things are just a** _ **little**_ **different this time…**

 **Stay tuned, same Nevermore time, same Nevermore channel! Signing off for now, this is Laughing Lefou!**

 **(P.S. I know some of you** _ **really**_ **wanted me to keep Moonlit Sonata around, but I'm afraid I just really can't bring myself to keep an unfinished work sitting around that I'll never get back to. If you** _ **insist**_ **on having it around to re-read for some odd reason or another, PM me and I'll try to throw you a copy.)**

* * *

 **B/N: Guess who's back? Back again?**

 **That's right my friends; LaughingLefou, master of all things feathered, freakish, and fabulous, has returned! (Don't take the 'freakish' too close to heart, bb, I just wanted the alliteration.)**

 **The Phantom Nevermore has returned, with more forethought and forward planning than ever before! More heists! More drama! More romance! (Or at least, flirting!)**

 **From what we've talked about, this is going to be a** _ **very**_ **exciting ride.**


	2. Migratory

**The Phantom Nevermore: New Moon Waltz**

 **Chapter 1: Migratory**

* * *

Once upon a time, Jaune Arc's uncle had told him, "Life is full of ironies, both large and small."

At the time, he'd been young, too young to really give the quote any thought beyond confusion. Yet, as he sat overlooking the city of Vale from his seat upon the airship, bound to Beacon Academy, the quote made sense all at once. It felt like so long ago that he'd dreamed of being in this very position, fantasized about it. Now that he was here, however, with changed circumstances, all he could think about was how long it would be until he could leave. His hand reached forward, taking the can of ginger ale off of the tray table in front of him and he took a sip, washing out the remaining taste of Dramamine from his mouth. Air sickness was a bitch, and he didn't feel like making a fool out of himself by throwing up all over himself on his first day.

Blue eyes flickered forward, looking over the rows of seats, to see a holographic image of a stern looking blond woman, gesturing with a riding crop as she spoke. Jaune couldn't hear a word she was saying; he'd been listening to his headphones since he'd gotten on board. Whatever it was, he was sure it couldn't be anything important. He turned his gaze back down to the school issued scroll and frowned, pocketing it. Another scroll, a matte black one, was pulled out and opened up, revealing a conversation in progress.

[ **X-Ray** ]: So, everything should be all set. If you've come this far, the forgeries were accepted. I still would be on guard though; Old Ozpin is far too clever by half. He might already know, but accepted you under his own agenda.

Jaune grimaced slightly to himself as he took another sip of ginger ale, the fingers of his other hand typing out a quick response on the scroll's holographic keyboard.

[ **Vav** ]: K. Was it a good idea to use my real name tho?

He placed the scroll down on the tray in front of him, glancing over to a group of prospective students standing around chatting. With the music in a temporary lull, he could overhear a pair of girls, one a buxom blond girl and one, a petite girl with black hair with red highlights and silver eyes, talking to one another. Something involving knees, if Jaune's hearing wasn't deceiving him. The vibration of his scroll against the tray alerted him to a new message and Jaune turned his attention back to it.

[ **X-Ray** ]: It'll be fine. You've been gone for four years, and the chances of that exact same Jaune Arc appearing at Beacon using his real name like nothing ever happened? It's too coincidental for anyone to believe. More than likely, people will just assume you to be someone different with the same name.

Jaune frowned slightly to himself. He'd be lying if he said he wasn't concerned, but if his uncle said it'd be fine, well, the man hadn't steered him wrong yet. Said frown turned into a smile at his unintentional joke. To say that Thaddeus Aurelius Arc hadn't steered him wrong was like saying that the Faunus of Remnant were in a much better position than before their past rebellion; Technically true, but so very, _very_ wrong in spirit.

[ **Vav** ]: So use the burner scroll to chat w/ you?

Once again, Jaune typed out his message and sent it, placing it before him as he glanced once more out the window. Already he could see the majestic parapets of Beacon rising above the horizon, the Emerald Tower shining high above the rest. The view was picturesque, but Jaune's focus was squarely upon the top of the Emerald Tower. Within that small area, his entire purpose for being at Beacon lay. With any luck, he'd be in the history books by the next year. The buzz of his scroll alerted him once more, and Jaune picked it back up, opening it up and scanning the message within.

[ **X-Ray** ]: Yeah, but for a little extra security, we should have code words for public and private conversations. I'm thinking...Rutabaga and Asparagus respectively.

Jaune's face contorted in distaste.

[ **Vav** ]: Ugh rly? Your codewords suk.

Thaddeus' response was almost instant, as though he knew exactly what his nephew was going to say:

[ **X-Ray** ]: At least I can type correctly. :D

Jaune began to type out a smarmy response, smiling to himself. The relationship between his uncle and himself was a relaxed affair. His uncle was both mentor, and friend, giving him a chance that his entire family had seen fit to prevent him from having. It was all thanks to him that he wasn't currently trapped in the middle of nowhere, or even worse, ending up in the belly of a Beowulf. A slight feeling of queasiness ran through Jaune, causing him to pause. It was one of life's many ironies that he was airsick; his usual profession had him flipping around, performing feats of acrobatics that would impress even the strictest sporting judge. Yet, the very act of the Bullhead landing, even with medication to quell it, still had him feeling slightly nauseous. He took a deep breath and closed his eyes, erasing the message he was about to send, typing a new one instead.

[ **Vav** ]: Bullhead is landing. TTYL?

Jaune began to buckle up, strapping himself in as the Bullhead's twin rotors began to move from a vertical orientation to a more horizontal one, and it began its descent. He opened up his scroll once more, to see Thaddeus had sent one last message.

[ **X-Ray** ]: Gotcha. Send me a message once you're done with initiation and you're in a team. We'll discuss things later.

With a click, Jaune closed the scroll one last time, stowing it away in his pocket and removing his earbuds. " _Now landing. Welcome, prospective students, to Beacon Academy_." The automatic announcement coming in from the speakers through the ship caused the students to chat excitedly among themselves. Excited about taking their next step in becoming a fully fledged Huntsman, the tension in the air palpable. For Jaune, however, that tension was felt for an entirely different reason.

With this first step, the theft of a lifetime would begin…

* * *

 **[Beacon Academy - Bullhead Landing Zone]**

* * *

Seeing Beacon at a distance was certainly picturesque, but even Jaune had to admit that it was nothing compared to the majestic view that Beacon provided up close. The massive towers, the main hall, the well kept gardens and grounds; all of it seemed almost surreal in nature. It was like something out of a story book. Jaune, despite himself, could only stop and stare in awe. Nothing he'd ever seen in his life, even Vale, could compare to the sight. He hoisted his duffel bag over his shoulder and patted his hip. Strapped to either side, he could feel the familiar weight of the two Kukri blades he'd brought with him for his Huntsman weaponry. His uncle had made sure to train him in at least two forms of combat; both gun and knife based. He would never call himself a combatant, but he wasn't defenseless.

In his line of work, defenseless meant capture, or death, and he wasn't sure which was worse.

Shaking his his head, he tore his gaze away from the gleaming white walls of the Huntsman Academy and started to make his way down the cobblestone steps. Students all around him chatted busily; newer students nervously trying to figure out where to go, or like Jaune, in awe of the surroundings, and older students reuniting from time spent away from each other over break, happy to see their fellow teammates. It was peaceful, calming even. Jaune closed his eyes and allowed himself a bit of time to simply relax. Life however, was nothing if not an utter bitch, and it hadn't even been thirty seconds after he closed his eyes that a sharp voice could be heard, cutting loudly above the ambient noise.

" _You dunce! Watch where you're going! Do you have any idea what kind of mess you could have made?!_ "

He winced. _Someone_ didn't sound happy. Despite his personal misgivings on getting involved, curiosity won him over, and he'd turned to face the commotion. Two figures stood distant, one of them in a red hooded cloak, looking particularly chastised. He recognized her from the airship, discussing something about knees or the like. The other was a figure that Jaune recognized immediately. There were few people on Remnant who _didn't_ know of Weiss Schnee, the heiress to the most powerful company in all four kingdoms, the Schnee Dust Corporation. A faint smirk played about his lips, almost imperceptible, but what was there was a touch malevolent. Not the kind of smile that one with honest and pure intentions would sport, certainly. Already his gaze was flickering about the scene, noticing the almost comically large suitcase that he was _certain_ was filled with valuable Dust. Not that he'd want to cause a scene so early in his career, but information could be just as useful as physical goods. Stuffing his hands into his pockets, the tall, thin boy made his way toward the two, adopting a completely innocent expression.

He paused halfway to approaching. He had to blink twice to make sure what he was noticing was correct, but his eyes didn't deceive him. Weiss Schnee, heiress to the Schnee **Dust** Corporation was shaking a bottle of what looked to be Dust, and if the faint red cloud coming from the bottle was any indication, she _hadn't_ bothered to seal the container. Jaune might not have been an expert in Dust, nor would he say that he would know more than Weiss would, but he was smart enough to know a possible danger when he saw one. His discretion was rewarded when he found himself distant enough from proceedings to avoid the sudden explosion that occurred when the hooded girl sneezed.

For the second time in the space of five minutes, Jaune found himself wincing once again, but for an entirely different reason. With a sigh and a shake of his head, he strode forward once more, catching the last parting complaint of Weiss'. "Ugh! You _idiot_! Look what you did!" With that, she huffed, stomped her foot and turned on her heel, storming off with her luggage wheeled behind her. The other girl, who'd been knocked to the ground from the force of the explosion, simply sat there, hood pulled up over her face, her expression hidden, but body language screaming depression. Jaune paused, took one look at the advancing Weiss, and shrugged. He could deal with her another time; they were going to the same school, after all.

"You know," Jaune spoke up, catching the attention of the girl, who very quickly wiped her sleeve across her face and looked up at him, silver eyes blinking, "You'd think that the heiress to the Schnee Dust Corporation would know better than to keep her Dust in unsealed vials, and even more so not to shake them around." He spoke while watching Weiss continue to leave down the cobblestone path, then turned to the girl on the ground and extended a hand with a smile. "Don't blame yourself; it's not your fault that she knows more about business than being a decent human being."

The girl, obviously despite herself, couldn't help but giggle as she grabbed ahold of Jaune's hand and he helped lift her to her feet. She dusted herself off and smiled. "Well, it was kinda my fault...I-I mean, I wasn't looking where I was going…"

Jaune rolled his eyes. "Pft. Who would blame you? This place is incredible. I've lived all over the place, and I haven't seen anywhere like Beacon before."

"Right?! It's like a fairytale…" She trailed off, looking up at the school once more before shaking her head, turning back to Jaune. "S-sorry! I got distracted again. My name's Ruby Rose! What's yours?"

"Hm? Oh, it's Jaune Arc! Short, sweet, rolls off the tongue; ladies love it." He grinned, although the grin faltered quickly upon seeing the look on Ruby's face, a look that made it obvious that she was trying not to burst out laughing.

"Do they?"

Jaune sighed, his shoulders slumping. "No. Maybe one day though."

Despite herself, Ruby couldn't help but break out laughing at Jaune's reaction. She caught herself shortly afterward, looking embarrassed. "I-I'm sorry…"

Jaune snorted. "Don't be. This whole 'confidence' thing is trickier than it looks." He chuckled, then added, "Feeling better?"

Ruby nodded. "Thanks for that. At least _someone_ was around to help me...my sister decided to just abandon me to go hang with her friends…"

"Oof. Sorry to hear that. Can I walk you to the auditorium?" Jaune asked.

The silver eyed girl smiled. "Sure! Erm...I don't know where to go though."

Jaune shrugged. "It's an auditorium. Can't be that hard to find, right?"

Ruby nodded. "Right!" The two of them fell into step, Jaune strolling casually to avoid making the shorter Ruby strain to keep up. The both of them had fallen into silence, which, while Jaune found to be relaxing, only made Ruby feel more awkward. After a minute of silence, Ruby cleared her throat, and pulled something from her hip, hefting it up. "S-so, have you seen my baby?"

"Hm?" Jaune turned, only to recoil slightly when Ruby, with the flick of a switch, unfolded a massive scythe nearly twice her size. "Wha-?!"

"Isn't she amazing? Her name's Crescent Rose! What about you? What's your weapon?"

Jaune blinked, caught off guard before grinning sheepishly, reaching down and twirling two long Kukri blades in a circle. "Nothing nearly as fancy as yours…don't really have a name for them either."

Ruby gasped. "No name? Weapons are a part of who we are as Huntsmen! It'd be like...like...like not giving your baby a name!"

"...eh?" Jaune's expression was incredulous at the sudden passion in Ruby's voice. "I...guess I just never thought of it?"

Ruby, as though suddenly struck with the realization of how off she had acted, recoiled in on herself, cheeks nearly as read as her cloak. "Sorry...m-my sister was right, I _am_ a dork…"

Jaune laughed. "If it makes you feel any better, I can say the same for myself. I love comic books."

Ruby giggled again. "Wow, you might be a bigger dork than I am…"

"H-hey! Comic books are just as good as normal books! They're modern mythology!" He protested, earning only a fresh round of giggles from Ruby.

"Suuuuure they are!"

"Hey, at least I'm not a weapon freak!"

"Weapon freak?! Why don't you go and play with some action figures!"

Silence fell, then was broken by the sounds of the two laughing merrily as they walked inside the great double doors to the entrance of Beacon Academy proper…

* * *

 **[Beacon Academy - ?]**

* * *

"...we're lost."

"We're not lost, we...just don't know where we are!"

Jaune stopped and turned to Ruby, cocking an eyebrow. "Isn't that the definition of lost?"

Obviously embarrassed, Ruby turned away to hide her blush, crossing her arms. "Fine, then _you_ lead us out of here, mister!"

Jaune shrugged. "I told you I didn't know where I was going…"

"But I was following you!" Ruby shot back.

"...and I was following you. Talk about the blind leading the blind…"

"Excuse me!" A stern voice caused the two of them to jump in surprise and wheel around to see a blond woman in glasses, holding a riding crop in one hand, her green eyes narrowed. "If you are new students, you should be in the auditorium!"

Ruby began to stammer, but Jaune cut her off. "Sorry, we got turned around; this place is bigger than we're used to. Could you possibly lead us back to the entrance hall?"

The woman's expression didn't change. "You have a map on your scrolls, if you'd bothered to check them."

"And we're very sorry about that. It's our first day and it's not everyday you get the chance to join a school like Beacon. We'd forgotten that the maps were there."

"Y-yeah!" Ruby chimed in. "We're really sorry, Ms. Goodwitch!"

The woman pushed her glasses up and sighed. "Fine, but don't make a habit of this. In the field, such missteps could mean the difference between failure and success. Follow me." Without another word, Glynda turned on her heel and strode away. Ruby and Jaune exchanged glances, and Jaune rolled his eyes. Ruby stifled a snort, smacking Jaune with a playful glare. They continued to follow the stern woman closely, not wanting to speak up for fear of drawing her ire. However, it was when they passed by a pair of restrooms, indicated by the signs in front of the doors, that Jaune broke the nervous silence.

"Excuse me, Ms. Goodwitch, but I've got to use the restroom real quick. You said there was a map on our scrolls?"

The woman stopped and nodded. "Yes."

"I'll catch up after I'm done then." Jaune explained, trying to ignore the look of betrayal Ruby shot his way for leaving her alone with the strict, slightly terrifying authority figure. He ducked into the restroom as he heard Goodwitch telling Ruby to keep up, and shook his head. He'd have to apologize to the girl later, but he'd more important things to take care of. He waited a few moments by the sinks, then opened the door up, poking his head out. The hallway itself was silent. Most of the students must have either been in the auditorium, or in their dorms. He poked his head back in and made his way to one of the stalls, closing the door. There was a long silence; then:

"Really? The restroom? You couldn't have found a more appropriate place?" A voice similar to Jaune's, but with an audible _sneer_ spoke up, from what sounded like the stall next to Jaune's.

"Don't complain; it's quiet here, and the hallway outside is dead. Look, if you wouldn't mind-"

"Yes, yes, I know, you needn't explain everything. This isn't my first time, mon ami."

There was a sigh from Jaune's stall, then, "That's not what I'm worried about. Causing a scene now would be a bit of an issue."

A slightly deeper laugh. The second voice sounded like someone who could have been related to Jaune, a brother perhaps. "Do you think I have no self control? I mean, I am y-"

"Fine, fine! I get it. Look, just...get a good idea of the school, alright? Don't sneak into any place that's more heavily guarded than a gas station store. And if you get caught-"

A groan. "What are you, our mother? I've done this before. Relax, would you? You just put on your nice face, and I'll handle the rest."

Jaune sighed. "Alright." The door to one of the stalls opened up and Jaune stepped out. "Let me leave first to make sure everything's clear, then you can take to the buttresses." With that, Jaune threw open the door to the bathroom, and stepped out, looking down the hallway to the right. Everything looked clear. He turned to his left and nearly leaped out of his clothing when he found himself nearly face to face with a white-haired man in green clothes, a cane in hand. It was none other than the Headmaster of Beacon Academy himself, Ozpin. "H-Headmaster Ozpin! You scared me!"

Ozpin chuckled warmly, a small smile across his features. "My apologies. I tend to be a bit quiet when I'm lost in thought. Shouldn't you be at the auditorium?"

Jaune forced himself to calm down and smiled awkwardly. "Ms. Goodwitch already read me the Riot Act."

"Hm, as she is wont to do. Then again, I can't blame you for needing to use the restroom. Anyway, we should be on our way, Janus."

Jaune froze. "Sorry?"

Ozpin chuckled again, shaking his head. "Sorry, _Jaune_. My memory isn't what it used to be."

Jaune blinked. "You...know my name?"

Ozpin nodded. "Well, you do have the same name as the boy who'd disappeared from the storied Arc family. I found that to be a very interesting coincidence...unless you _are_ him…"

"Eheheh, no, I'm afraid not. Not the first time I've been mistaken for him though." Jaune replied, rubbing the back of his neck.

"I thought not." Ozpin replied. While he sounded convincing, something in the back of Jaune's mind told him that the Headmaster didn't completely buy his story. "Well, shall we?" Ozpin gestured to the empty hallway before them, and Jaune nodded.

"R-Right." With that, student and Headmaster walked down the hall, Jaune allowing Ozpin to move ahead of him to get an idea of where to go. The two turned a corner, and were gone from sight. The hallway became silent once more…

...until the door to the restroom opened up.

"Now, let's have a bit of fun, shall we?"

* * *

 **[Beacon Academy - Auditorium]**

* * *

Ozpin had left to go up on stage once he and Jaune had arrived through the double doors to the large room. He'd done so without a word, which made Jaune feel a lot better, all things considered. Their walk there had been quiet, but the kind of quiet that was born from news unspoken. He had no reason to believe that Ozpin knew of his reasons for being there, but simply being the only male scion of the Arc family was problematic enough. The last thing he wanted to do was arouse suspicion, especially this early in the game.

Jaune looked around the crowded room, packed to full with countless new students, each one eager to start their career at Beacon. Not wanting to look like an outsider, Jaune scanned for a familiar face, and to his delight, found Ruby chatting animatedly with a busty blond girl. Wanting to avoid looking out of place, he quietly approached the two from an angle. Getting within listening distance, he could hear Ruby's voice over the din of the other students, recounting the tale of her explosion with the Schnee heiress. Before he could make himself known, however, a familiar figure stepped in front of him, cutting him off. "You again?!"

"AAH! It's happening again!" Ruby jumped up into the blond girl's arms, obviously frightened by Weiss' appearance and less than pleasant demeanor.

"Do you have any idea what kind of disaster you could have caused back there? You need to learn how to be more responsible!" Weiss snapped, waving a pamphlet in Ruby's face.

"Woah, woah, calm down Ice Queen," The blonde shot back, dropping Ruby. "It was an accident. Let's not fight and just get along."

"Y-yeah!" Ruby added, "Let's be friends!"

Weiss huffed. "Oh, sure, and we can do our nails and talk about boys like tall, blond, and scraggly over there."

Jaune's expression turned sour behind Weiss' back. Not that he was surprised; such conceited behavior was something he'd expected from the SDC Heiress. To be personally insulted by her though, before they'd even spoken? His lips turned upward. If she wanted to play that way, he could have a bit of fun. Slowly he approached her and leaned forward to the side of her, smiling from ear to ear. "I couldn't help but notice you mentioning me, _Snow Angel_."

Weiss jumped in surprise, not having noticed his approach. Slowly, she looked disgusted before giving a huff and stomping away, muttering something about ' _dunces_ ,' as she did so. Jaune watched her walk away and stuck his hands in his pockets. As she disappeared into the crowd, Jaune couldn't help but start laughing to himself, turning on his heel to see Ruby and her compatriot staring at him in confusion. "Huh. Did I come on too strong?"

Ruby suddenly looked nervous as she coughed and looked off to the side, as if worried about offending him. The blonde girl, on the other hand, seemed to suffer no such compunction. "With a line like, 'Snow Angel?' Yeaaah, just a bit." She looked amused as though enjoying the obvious blunder on his part.

Jaune, however, grinned from ear to ear. "Really? Perfect."

"Wait, what?"

With a laugh and a shake of his head, Jaune retorted with, "Come on, you don't _really_ think I was being serious, did you? I might not be Cassanova, but that's bad even for me…"

"Wait, so you're saying you badly hit on her on purpose?" The blonde asked, smirking in amusement.

"Well, maybe next time she'll think twice before insulting someone within earshot." Jaune murmured, shrugging his shoulders.

The blonde snorted. "Getting back at someone by using a dorky pick-up-line. Can't say I've seen that one before. Anyway, I'm Yang Xiao-Long. Who are you?"

Jaune began, "I'm J-"

He was cut off by Ruby jumping in, excitedly exclaiming, "He's Jaune! He helped me up after I exploded and we got lost trying to find the auditorium. Then he abandoned me to that scary Mrs. Goodwitch!"

"What?! I had to use the restroom!"

"A likely story!" Ruby pointed at Jaune. Yang, however, just laughed again.

"I see. Thanks for helping out my baby sister. She needs all the help she can get, being such a _dork._ "

"Hey!" Ruby shouted indignantly, "Weapons aren't dorky! Not like...like comic-"

Before Ruby could finish her statement, the sound of a microphone's feedback cut conversation off nearly completely, with only a few very hushed whispers remaining. Ozpin had taken stage, standing before the microphone. Everything fell silent…

"I'll... keep this brief. You have traveled here today in search of knowledge, to hone your craft and acquire new skills, and when you have finished, you plan to dedicate your life to the protection of the people. But I look amongst you, and all I see is wasted energy, in need of purpose, direction. You assume knowledge will free you of this, but your time at this school will prove that knowledge can only carry you so far. It is up to you to take the first step."

With only that, Ozpin turned on his heel and walked off the stage, the sound of his cane clicking against the stage punctuating every step. Without missing a beat, Glynda Goodwitch stepped forward to take his place and upon seeing her stern expression, the room once more fell into silence, but this time more out of fear than respect. "For today, you will remain on campus until sundown, upon you will be expected to return to the Great Hall to sleep. Tomorrow, initiation begins at 8am sharp, with breakfast starting at 7am. Students caught wandering about after hours will be disciplined."

Just as Ozpin had left after his brief speech so too did Goodwitch, leaving the students standing around in the hall, murmuring to each other. Jaune turned to Ruby with a wry grin. "Think she was talking about us?"

Ruby, who's cheeks nearly matched the shade of her cloak, pulled the hood over her face and mumbled something. Yang snickered. "Aw, already in trouble, Ruby? You're just like your big sister!" Ruby mumbled something angrily, but her voice was drowned out by the surrounding students. "Come again, sis?"

"At least _I_ didn't get into a bar fight!"

"Meh." Yang shrugged. "You'll get there eventually."

Ruby looked horrified. "I wouldn't!"

Jaune cut in, chuckling. "Sorry to interrupt, but there's a story here, and I've _got_ to hear it!"

Yang turned to him, smirking and raising an amused eyebrow. "Oh? Well, we're stuck here for a while, so I might as well turn this into storytime…"

 **[Sometime later]**

"...and so I looked over and the _bastard_ had torn out some of my hair!"

The three of them had made their way to the cafeteria and sat down as Yang explained her outing at a local nightclub slash underground informant named Junior's. Ruby, who'd sat next to Yang, recoiled away. "Oohhh no…"

"Don't tell me," Jaune interjected, shaking his head, "That was the _wrong_ move?"

"I lost my shit," Yang clenched her fist as she confirmed the statement. "I had it up to _here_ with him, so I activated my Semblance and really let 'im have it!"

Ruby frowned. "It kinda sounds like you started it though…"

Yang looked to the side, for once looking chastised. She rubbed the back of her neck, grimacing. "Okay, so I _might_ have gone a bit overboard. What else was I supposed to do though?! You can't let guys like him think you're weak! Right Jaune?" She glanced at him with an almost pleading look.

Jaune stared back, silent for a moment, before pulling out his scroll, opening it and holding it to his mouth. "Note...to...self: never go to Junior's with Yang in tow…" Jaune ended his mock dictation with a playful smirk in Yang's direction.

Said blonde reached over and smacked his shoulder, pouting. "Hey, you're supposed to be on my side here! Hasn't anyone told you how to treat a lady?"

"Yes, but my definition of 'lady,' doesn't involve property damage." Jaune murmured, rubbing his shoulder while trying (and failing) to hide a wince.

Ruby began laughing and Yang turned her scandalized gaze upon her. "Betrayed by my own sister?"

"I'm... _tee-hee_...I'm sorry! Hehehe!" Ruby clutched her sides, laughing uproariously.

Yang turned back to Jaune with a mock glare. "Turning my sister against me, huh?"

Jaune, playing along, stood to his feet and stepped back, putting his hands up. "Aaaaand that's my cue to leave!"

Ruby stopped laughing, suddenly looking a bit off. "Already?"

"Well, I want to stake a claim for a decent corner of the Great Hall, so I don't end up by the restroom or something." Jaune explained. "I'll catch you guys later?"

Ruby nodded and Yang smiled. "Sure thing. It was nice meeting you, Jaune."

Jaune turned on his heel and walked away, giving a nonchalant wave over his shoulder. Yang waited until he'd walked out of sight to turn to her sister, a devious smirk slowly dawning on her face. Ruby, who'd been watching Jaune leave, didn't notice until she turned her head to see her sister's ear-to-ear smug smirk. Ruby recoiled, eyes wide. "W-what?"

"Awww, my baby sister made her first friend." Yang sing-songed, causing Ruby's cheeks to go pink and to have her pulling her hood over her face.

"Yaaaaaaang!" Ruby whined.

"I better watch out, soon you'll have your first cru~ush!"

" _Yaaaaaaang!_ "

* * *

 **[Beacon Academy - Hallway]**

* * *

"Oof!"

Jaune, his face buried in his school scroll, hadn't noticed someone else in the hallway to the Great Hall, bumping into them and knocking them, along with himself, to the ground. His gaze snapped up and he found himself staring at a rabbit eared, long haired brunette girl, wincing at the impact.

An odd look passed over Jaune's face, but it was gone as soon as it appeared, and he quickly scrambled to his feet, extending a hand. "S-sorry! I was paying more attention to my map than where I was going!"

The girl gave an easy laugh. "Oh, it's okay, I-" She paused in mid speech as she looked up, her smile faltering.

Jaune frowned. "Is something wrong?"

The girl blinked, then asked, "I'm sorry, but...have we met before?"

Jaune shook his head. "Nope, can't say we have. I think I'd remember a pretty face like yours." He finished his line with a wink. The girl sat there, silent. Said silence continued on for an uncomfortably long time before Jaune sighed, hanging his head. "Sorry, that was bad. Day one and I'm already two and oh."

The girl suddenly broke out into a giggle. "I'm sorry! Really, it wasn't _terrible_ …"

Jaune shook his head. "No, no, no need to spare my dignity; it's not like I've got a lot left."

The girl smiled, and reached up, grasping his hand. Jaune pulled her to her feet and she smoothed out her shorts, before looking back at him once more. "If I'm being honest, it's actually refreshing to be hit on for once...usually it's Coco who gets the attention, when it isn't some weirdo hitting on me, anyway…"

Jaune rubbed the back of his neck, grimacing. "I think I fall under that category."

"Do not. Oh, I'm Velvet Scarlatina. You are…?"

Jaune shook his head, snapping himself out of his personal thoughts. "Oh, I'm Jaune Arc."

"It's nice to meet you, Jaune! Sorry about earlier, you just looked familiar, but I don't think you're at all who I thought you were." Velvet explained. "And don't worry about the accident; I was just more surprised than anything. You said you're new?"

Jaune nodded. "Yeah, I'm fresh meat."

"I'm sure you'll do fine. Initiation usually isn't as hard as people make it out to be. I hope everything goes well for you though!"

"Thanks. And...um...again, sorry about the…" He trailed off, his cheeks slightly red.

Velvet laughed. "It's _fine_. I'd much rather have a cute underclassman hit on me than…" Her expression fell. "Well, let's just say that being told I'm pretty is far from the worst thing I've heard."

"I can only imagine. Thanks for being cool with me though." Jaune replied. "I've got to go stake a claim on a decent area in the Great Hall though."

Velvet nodded. "Oh, I understand. When I was here, I was lucky that my current partner had taken me under her wing and got me a nice spot away from everyone. Didn't want to end up by the restroom…" She trailed off, giving a small shudder. "Anyway, I've got to catch up to my team anyway. It was nice meeting you Jaune, and I really hope I get to see you around!"

Jaune smiled and gave a small salute as Velvet strolled past him. His gaze followed her until she turned the corner, then looked down the hall, making sure no one else had arrived. He leaned against the wall upon noticing that he was once again alone, and opened up his school scroll once again. He tapped onto an icon, and a map opened up. "Well, that could have gone better…" He fell silent once again, as though listening to someone as he tapped at the scroll, zooming in on certain rooms and hallways. Then, abruptly, he spoke up again. "...shut up. If you're not going to be helpful, then at least focus on the task at hand." He pulled out the matte black scroll from his pocket and opened it up with his other hand, putting the two next to each other and tapping the black scroll's screen. A bar popped up, and when it filled, the black scroll had an exact replica of the map on his school scroll.

More silence. "Yeah, I've just downloaded the map. I'll draw down some potential routes through here. Still, you'd think there'd be more cameras around here. Ozpin must believe this place is impenetrable because of all the Huntsmen." He stowed the school scroll and began to fiddle with the black one, his fingers drawing lines across the map. As he did so, he began his route to the Great Hall, occasionally looking upward to avoid any more accidents. "...no, put that _back_...I don't care." He sighed. "What did Thaddeus say? ...yeah, _Gentleman_ Thief. So put it back." Jaune groaned and pinched the bridge of his nose, closing the scroll and stowing it in his pocket with his other hand. "Look just...exit stage right for now, okay? We've got a decent amount of information, and we'll probably be here a while. I'm gonna go find a decent spot to sleep."

With that, Jaune shook his head and found himself approaching the Great Hall. With a heave, he opened up the wide double doors, and to his delight, found the room to be filled with only a few students. His eyes zeroed in on a spot against the wall, situated just so where the sun wouldn't wake him up, and hefted his duffle bag further up his shoulder, approaching the spot and sliding down against it with a sigh. The hard marble flooring would make for poor bedding, but it would have to do for that night. With any luck, he'd have an actual bed the next day. He reached back into his pocket, and withdrew his black scroll again. A flick of his wrist and the scroll opened up once again, as Jaune continued to draw further upon the copy of the Beacon Academy map.

* * *

 **[Beacon Academy - Hallway]**

* * *

"Are you sure you're alright, sir?" Glynda Goodwitch murmured, pausing in mid-stride. Next to her, Ozpin stood, frowning slightly. He'd been quiet most of the morning, and even now he was staring off into space, an odd look on his face. He slowly shook his head and turned to Glynda.

"I'm...quite alright. Sorry. Things have been hectic lately and I've been lost in thought."

Glynda nodded. "Of course. I understand. I've given James the update...he's pushing for us to make the transfer sooner, rather than later, and I'm fearing that he might be right. Our enemy could be under our noses as we speak."

"Hm." Ozpin gave only a small noise of confirmation as he continued walking forward. Glynda followed close behind him, her fingers dancing across the holographic screen of her personal Scroll. The two walked in silence as they made their way toward the Emerald Tower, their pace comfortable, but with purpose. It wasn't too long, however, before Glynda had noticed that Ozpin had stopped again, but this time, his gaze was up into the darkened rafters above, the area shadowed by the setting sun. A small frown was drawn across his lips, and Glynda followed his gaze upward, only to see an entirely empty ceiling.

Slowly, Glynda turned her gaze to Ozpin, her expression growing slightly more worried "Sir?"

Ozpin's frown slowly grew into the smallest of smiles and he started walking once more. "Nothing, Glynda. Just realized I'll need to make a couple of calls. By the way, I found it to be interesting that one of our new students happens to have the same name as the missing scion of the Arc Family. An interesting bit of trivia, hm?"

Glynda's eyes widened. "Shouldn't we inform the Arc Family, then?"

Ozpin continued to walk as he spoke. "For now, no. We've more important matters on our hands, and he _is_ of independent age. Of course, I wonder where he's been all these years, if he _is_ our wayward Arc?" With that, he fell silent once again, almost in his own world, unaware of the frown on Glynda's face, nor the way she looked back up into the rafters above, her frown deepening. She sighed gently, and brought her attention back to her scroll as she prepared for the busy day ahead…

* * *

 **Spooks: Lefou's writing is like constipation, agonizing, slow to come, but oh-so-satisfying when it does. :D Fo real though, I'm super excited for what Lefou is doing with this. You guys haven't seen the outline, the scene ideas he's bounced around, but man, you guys are in for a treat.**

 **Assuming Lefou can get it out, of course ;)**

* * *

 **A/N: Hooooooooly Carp, that was a while to get out. I apologize once more, but my work has had me working overtime, and 10 hours at a factory, for a few days in a row kicks your ass, so I was too tired to even do much gaming, much less do any writing, but here we are.**

 **I wanted to touch bases with everyone real quick on a topic; that being, "Why did I choose Jaune Arc to be the Phantom?"**

 **Well, it's for three reasons. The first reason is that, well, when I first started writing the Phantom Nevermore, (and writing fanfiction in general) I'd noticed a lot of people writing "Jaune becomes a criminal" fics, but each one seemed to have him becoming some sort of edgy, or depressing figure. And it's Jaune! He's not edgy and even with losing Pyrrha, he's been handling himself pretty well. I found it all to be a little silly, and wanted to make a fic that had Jaune acting as, well, Jaune. Someone who was having some fun instead of being a mopy sack of edge to rival Adam.**

 **The second reason is a little more complex. See, to me, a Phantom Thief is over the top, bombastic, full of energy and not just a little absurdity. They're a comic book character come to life. They need both drive,** _ **and**_ **energy to be successful. Their motivation needn't be greed, but the desire to be famous, to be known, or simply for the challenge. Characters like Ren and Blake might have the drive and talent, but lack the energy or bombastic nature. On the flip side, Nora and Ruby would have the energy, but not the focus or willingness to commit criminal acts to pursue fame. Jaune on the other hand, has shown a willingness to break the rules to become someone, has both focus and energy, and would embrace the cliches of a Phantom Thief. Of course, then again, one could make the argument for Sun.**

 **That leads me to my third reason, which is, I like Jaune more than Sun.**

 **So hopefully that clears up why I use Jaune, beyond simply, "I like the character." People might disagree with me, but this is just a case of differing character interpretations.**

 **In other news, I do apologize for the slow pace of this chapter, but this** _ **is**_ **the beginning of the Beacon Year, and not every chapter can be high-octane, over the top thievery. For every Jack Sparrow, there must be a Will Turner to balance things out, or the over the top stuff becomes boring.**

 **Besides, I like character development.**

 **Signing off for now, this is LaughingLefou.**


	3. Nesting

**The Phantom Nevermore: New Moon Waltz**

 **Chapter 2: Nesting**

* * *

 **[?]**

* * *

"Hey, Jaune?"

Jaune, age 15, paused, his hands frozen as he turned to the speaker. In one hand, he held a thin, bent metal rod, and in the other, a screwdriver. On the table before him, a lock sat, having been split in half to reveal its inner workings. Thaddeus had been teaching his young nephew the art of lockpicking, something that the younger Arc took to like a fish to water. It may have been the illicit thrill of being able to sneak into places he wasn't supposed to that gave Jaune a greater focus than usual, but he'd been following his uncle's instructions to the letter. He only paused when his uncle, who had been quietly watching him, spoke up out of the blue. "Yeah?"

Thaddeus leaned back in his chair, stroking his blond goatee as he peered over the rim of his glasses at his nephew. The younger of the two elder Arc brothers was nearly his brother's opposite in form. Thin, lanky and almost scarecrow-like in profile, Thaddeus Arc looked more like he could be Jaune's father than Jaune's actual father. In fashion, though, nephew and uncle couldn't have been more opposite; Jaune preferring more comfortable and less stylish outfits, and Thaddeus always seen wearing a crisp three piece suit, even during relaxation times. "What's up, Thaddeus?" Jaune queried, raising a single eyebrow.

"Ever hear of something called the 'Mask Theory?'"

Jaune's brow furrowed. "Nope." He answered a few moments later, shaking his head.

Thaddeus laughed. "Not surprising. The Mask Theory is...hm...how do I put it?"

Jaune glared at his uncle. "I'm not stupid…" Jaune muttered angrily, crossing his arms over his chest in irritation.

With a smile, Thaddeus reached forward and ruffled his nephew's hair. "Not saying that you are; it's just a complicated subject." He sat back and drummed his fingers on the table for a moment. "The best way I can put it is like this: when you wear a mask, you become a different person; a you with lowered or no inhibitions."

Jaune sat for a few moments, thinking on his uncle's words. Then, with a sigh, he rested his head onto the table. "Never mind, I _am_ stupid."

"You are not. Here; let me explain it differently" Thaddeus replied, "Imagine this: You're awkward around other people, unable to make friends because you're afraid of messing up and carrying that social error with you every time you see those people. Or you're afraid of breaking the rules that society has agreed upon because it'll reflect back on you. Get it so far?"

Jaune hesitated for a moment, then nodded. "I think so."

"Now," Thaddeus continued, "Imagine you meet a group of people, but this time, you're wearing a mask; you're disguised. Anything you do, good or bad, is attributed to that mask. If you mess up, or do something wrong, it's not Jaune Arc who takes the blame, but who you're disguised as. Still with me?" Jaune nodded again. "Alright. Now, if you could meet with any group of people and never face the consequences of your actions, wouldn't you become more confident? You'd never worry about screwing up, as you will never be blamed. Eventually, that anonymity changes who you are. You're more confident, and more willing to take risks. To flaunt the rules."

"I...see?"

Thaddeus reached over, and withdrew from behind a stack of textbooks, a white, stylized, domino mask with four red eyes. He held it between himself and Jaune, peering at his nephew through the translucent red lenses. "I'm telling you this, because as you'll eventually learn, the mask of a Phantom Thief does more than simply hide your identity. It can change who you are the moment you put it on. While you might be mild-mannered Jaune beneath it, the person you project will be someone different. That person, and how they act, are entirely up to you. The question you need to start asking yourself is…

 _Who do you want to be?_ "

* * *

 **[Beacon Academy - Great Hall]**

* * *

Jaune awoke with a start, blinking bleary-eyed in the orange light of the barely rising sun. A soft beeping caught his attention and he turned to his open scroll, the time of 5:00am flashing on the lock screen as it signified the alarm that Jaune had set the previous night. Slowly, he rose to his feet, stretching and yawning softly. His back felt stiff from laying on the floor; he'd felt stupid after getting dressed into his undershirt and pajama bottoms, when he saw that other students had been smart enough to bring a sleeping bag. He'd been lucky that it was a warm night; he would have been freezing otherwise. Looking around, Jaune noticed that only a few other students had woken up as early as he had. Most of the students were still asleep, including Ruby and her sister. Bundling up his clothes from the previous night, Jaune stuffed them into his duffle bag and silently walked through the room. He avoided the students still sleeping on the floor, allowing himself a small bit of pride when he noticed that the few faunus students hadn't woken up upon his passing.

From there, he made his way to his locker and changed out of his sleep clothes, stuffing them and his duffle bag haphazardly into his locker. He closed the door and rested his forehead against the cool metal of the locker. It would have been a lie if he were to say that he wasn't the _tiniest_ bit nervous over the initiation. If he failed it, somehow, his entire plan would come crumbling down before it even had a chance to begin. When he was younger, and just training with his uncle, he might have had anxiety issues, even a brief panic attack. Time and experience, however, turned that anxiety into excitement. Jaune closed his eyes, enjoying the feel of the cold metal against his skin. Even after having gotten up early for years, thanks to his uncle's strict training regiment, he still had a hard time actually waking up at a decent time without the aid of caffeine, cold water, physical activity, or any combination thereof. Still tired, and with breakfast not for another two hours, his only recourse was to get some cold water on his face, and take to the training grounds to limber up. Reluctantly, he pulled himself away from the locker and with hands in his pockets, made his way out the room to find the training grounds.

It hadn't taken him long. The training grounds weren't too far from the Great Hall to begin with, only a ten minute walk or so. Plus, his little reconnaissance mission the day prior had given him intimate knowledge of the entire campus, or at least as much as he could get away with, without arousing suspicion. Shared knowledge was a useful thing to have. The training grounds themselves were quite large, then again, they needed to be in order to accommodate the many students who frequented it over the course of each day. Jaune hadn't been expecting many students to have woken as early as he did, but he was a little surprised to find only a single other figure on the grounds, having woken up even earlier than he had. Hiding in the shadows of the doorframe, he stood and watched the lone woman move with grace and purpose as she went through her daily weapon drills. Jaune would have been lying through his teeth if he said she wasn't attractive; she might have been one of the most beautiful women he'd run into during his short time at Beacon. Hair as red as the sunset, eyes the color of perfectly cut emeralds and a lithe figure that was both, powerful and gorgeous, it wasn't long before Jaune found himself unable to tear his eyes away.

It was a testament to his natural state of stealth that the woman hadn't noticed Jaune watching her well into fifteen minutes. During one of her turns, her gaze had flickered up to the doorway, and the rising sun glinting off of one of Jaune's kukri knives finally gave him away. The woman gave a start, and _nearly_ dropped her weapon: a sword/spear mecha shift weapon and rounded shield. "O-oh! I-I'm sorry! I didn't realize you were there!" She spoke up, hand to her chest as she caught her breath.

"Heh, nah, it's no biggie. I should be apologizing," Jaune replied as he stepped forward, trying to fight down the slight blush on his cheeks from having been caught playing voyeur, "I'm Jaune Arc. You are?"

The woman seemed taken aback for a moment, as though she weren't expecting him to introduce himself so readily, or perhaps he'd said something odd. Slowly, an odd smile spread across her face and she extended a hand. "Pyrrha. Pyrrha Nikos."

Jaune accepted her hand and shook it. "Sorry about watching and all, just haven't seen anyone move like that…" He looked aside, rubbing the back of his neck.

Pyrrha gave a melodic giggle. "It's fine! If I'm in the way, I can move..."

"N-no! Not at all!" Jaune waved his hands in front of his face disarmingly. "You're fine, really. I just woke up a bit too early, breakfast isn't for over an hour and I figured I'd get warmed up and woken up."

"Not a bad idea. New student?"

Jaune nodded. "Yeah. You?"

She gave another light laugh. "I am."

"Interesting weapon you've got there." Jaune pointed out, relaxing upon the realization that the girl wasn't angered by his watching. "Between you and that girl with the sniper-scythe, I seriously went low-tech…"

"Oh this?" Pyrrha twirled her weapon before her in its spear form. "Milo and Akouo have served me well. What are your weapons?"

Jaune's hands fell to his hips and with a flash of silver, produced his two kukri knives. "Admittedly, I don't have a name for them. Just a pair of knives with an alternate boomerang form. They aren't as flashy, but they get the job done."

"While a good weapon is helpful, it's all in how you use it." Pyrrha sagely replied. "I'm surprised though; many huntsmen name their weapons as a rite of passage. I don't meet too many people who haven't."

"True," Jaune replied, "and as for the name, well, I never made these. They were a gift from my uncle, but he hadn't named them either. I guess I just never felt it necessary. I didn't have the same training as most people."

"Privately trained?" Pyrrha inquired, her expression genuinely curious.

Jaune nodded. "Yeah. Neither my teacher, nor myself were big on tradition."

"That…" Pyrrha trailed off, glancing to the side. "That's nice?"

The conversation dropped off, with both Jaune and Pyrrha falling silent, unsure of what topic to broach next, if any. Finally, Jaune, unable to take the awkward silence any longer, shrugged and sheathed his blades. "Well, I'm going to get a little warm up done for today. I want to be as prepared for the initiation as possible."

The gorgeous woman nodded, looking pleased that a new topic had been brought up. "Not a terrible idea. If you'd like, perhaps we-"

Pyrrha was cut off with the appearance of a white-haired girl who slid into view between Jaune and herself, startling them both. "Oh my goodness, Pyrrha Nikos! My name is Weiss Schnee, although I'm sure you already know that! I was hoping you and I could possibly do some early morning training together, if you wouldn't mind, of course." Weiss cut in, completely ignoring Jaune behind her, whose expression was torn between surprise and irritation at the heiress' audacious behavior.

"Um, _excuse me_." Jaune muttered, tapping her shoulder.

Weiss turned on her heel and stared at him for a few seconds before rolling her eyes with a huff. She turned back to Pyrrha and walked forward, grasping one of her hands. "Come on, let's go somewhere where we _won't_ get interrupted. Some people…" With that, she proceeded to drag Pyrrha off, who only looked back almost apologetically at Jaune before half walking off, half being pulled with the heiress. The two made their way through the door and out of sight, leaving Jaune standing in place, a twitch developing in his right eye. He stood there, silently, for a few minutes before finally, it hit him.

"What. The. Hell." Jaune muttered, staring at the now empty door frame that he'd not long ago vacated. His gaze narrowed and he turned on his heel, walking into the training grounds proper. If he hadn't reason to target the Heiress before, she was certainly giving him one now. The sound of steel rang out as Jaune withdrew the Kukri blade from their sheathes, and began his own weapon drills, even as his mind began their own separate drills for the weeks and possibly months to come…

Jaune had ended his warm up slightly early to get in a quick shower and grab breakfast as soon as the cafeteria opened up, lest he find his choice in food pared down due to demand. Upon getting out of the communal male showers, he already noticed a group of people in the locker rooms; numerous students who'd gotten up later than he was. He pushed his way past a group of students chatting about initiation and partnership. Before he left the locker room, he noticed an almost comically energetic, orange-haired girl bouncing around a dark-haired boy who looked like he would have rathered crawled back into his sleeping bag for another twelve hours if he could get away with it. Jaune gave a sympathetic smile and a light chuckle as he walked out of the locker room, and toward the cafeteria.

He lucked out upon getting there, noting that only a small handful of people had gotten to breakfast; among them one Ruby Rose. Jaune approached her silently from behind, grabbing a plastic tray as he followed closely. He stayed as quiet as possible as the line moved, Ruby moving up to the food line. "Excuse me! I'll take a bowl of Cookie Crispies and an apple, please!"

Ruby's request was complied, a large bowl of cereal and milk along side an apple placed upon her tray. Jaune walked forward. "I'll take a breakfast burrito with eggs, bacon, sausage, cheese, hash browns and country gravy." Ruby jumped in place, almost spilling her breakfast and causing Jaune to start laughing at the angry pout on the cloaked girl's face.

"Jerk! You scared me!" Ruby put her tray down and pounded at Jaune's chest, only earning a fresh round of laughter from Jaune.

"I'm sorry! I couldn't resist!" Jaune smiled and pulled up his tray with his requested burrito upon it. "Look, really, I'm sorry. I'm glad you didn't drop your breakfast."

Ruby tried to keep her angry pout, but it passed quickly and she gave a small smile. "It's okay. Yang's done a lot worse in the past."

Jaune raised an eyebrow, but didn't inquire any further. "Speaking of which, where _is_ your sister?"

"Ugh, she takes _forever_ to get ready in the mornings. I think she spends more time on her hair than half the girls in our old school combined." Ruby muttered, following Jaune as he made his way to the cooler with drinks in it.

"After hearing her little sordid tale yesterday, that really doesn't surprise me." Jaune chuckled, grabbing two bottles of orange juice from the cooler. He passed one to Ruby, who smiled in thanks and placed it on her tray. She followed him as the two made their way to a nearby empty table and sat down.

Ruby started to dig into her cereal as Jaune stared down at his breakfast, a frown on his face. He looked up, glancing about the room, and his frown only seemed to deepen. "Is...something wrong?"

After a few moments of continuing to glance about the room, Jaune hung his head with a sigh. "There's...there's no coffee in the cafeteria! How can they expect us to start our day without a cup of joe?! They'd better allow us to have an espresso machine in our dorm rooms, or I'm going to have some serious issues with this place…"

Ruby stuck out her tongue. "Yech. Coffee. Dad was a big fan of that. I tried it, but it was so bitter."

Jaune rubbed the back of his neck. "Yeah, about that...I won't lie, I prefer cream and sugar in mine. I can't drink it black like my uncle Thaddeus."

"Your uncle?"

"Yeah." Jaune nodded. "He's been training me for a while now."

Ruby nodded. "That's cool! My uncle has taught me a lot as well! Like how to fight with a scythe, and how to beat different types of Grimm, and all sorts of other stuff!"

"Your uncle sounds like a pretty awesome guy. Uncle Thaddeus taught me…" Jaune trailed off and shook his head. "Well, he taught me a lot." Jaune took a bite of his breakfast burrito, enjoying the food. Whatever could be said about Beacon Academy, at the very least, the food was delicious.

"What about the rest of your family?" Ruby innocently asked, silver eyes staring up at him.

Jaune froze in mid bite, burrito frozen before his mouth. A look passed over his face and he slowly lowered the burrito. His gaze fixed itself upon a particularly troublesome spot on the pressed wood table. "I...haven't spoken to them in a while."

Ruby stared for a moment, then gasped, horrified. "You don't mean that they…"

"What-no! No, no, they're alive...at least as far as I know. I...look, I don't want to talk about it." Jaune explained, his voice barely above a whisper toward the end.

"I...I'm sorry." Ruby lowered her gaze into her cereal bowl.

Jaune shook his head. "No, it's not your fault. It's just something I'm not very comfortable with."

"Jeez, what's with the two of you? You look like someone died!" A voice shouted out, catching the attention of both Jaune and Ruby. They looked up to see Yang Xiao Long approaching them with her own breakfast tray, sitting down next to her sister. "Don't tell me you two are nervous about initiation."

"No, I-" Ruby started, looking a bit ashamed, once again staring down into her bowl of cereal.

Jaune, however, cut her off. "Yeah, you caught us red-handed. It's just a big deal, you know, making it into Beacon?"

Ruby looked up at Jaune, confused, as Yang laughed. "Aw, that's adorable. You guys will do fine. It's seriously no big deal. I don't think they'd do anything worse than the end of the year test for Patch, Ruby. As for Jaune…" Yang trailed off, thinking. "Where did you train?"

"As I told Ruby, I've trained with my uncle for most of my life. Thinking on it though, I'm sure that whatever they throw at us is nothing compared to what Uncle Thaddeus threw my way."

Yang laughed. "Tough guy?"

Jaune shrugged and took another bite of his burrito, waiting until he'd finished chewing and swallowed before he spoke again. "Tough, but fair. He pushed me, but always reminded me that he only did so because he knew I could do it." He smiled, then added, "More often than not, he was right."

Yang and Ruby exchanged amused glances. "Yeah, sounds a lot like our Uncle Qrow. He trained Ruby while our dad trained me."

"Well, I'm sure we'll all be fine. I'm more worried about finding a decent partner." Jaune mentioned.

Yang took a bite of scrambled eggs and shrugged. "Hey, maybe you and Ruby can partner up!"

Ruby laughed awkwardly. "Y-yeah...although I was kinda hoping...you know...that we'd be partners, Yang."

Yang smiled and shook her head. "Come on Ruby, you should make friends of your own!"

Ruby lowered her head once more and took a bite of cereal. "I'll be fine, Yang…" It became Yang and Jaune's turn to exchange glances. Jaune shrugged and the three went back to their breakfast to prepare for the day ahead of them…

* * *

 **[Beacon Academy - Locker Rooms]**

* * *

' _There are three lessons that above all else, I want you to learn. First, to be fully prepared, is to invite victory. The second, is that there is no such thing as a fair fight. Lastly, and most importantly, our first rule: if it's worth doing..._ _ **it's worth doing in style…**_ '

Thaddeus' words rang in Jaune's ears as he shut his locker door. Knives and other accoutrements were strapped to his waist in preparation for initiation. He was as prepared as he was going to be, or at least as prepared as he _could_ be, given the situation. The truth of the matter was simple; Jaune _wasn't_ a Huntsman. He had combat training, sure, but direct conflict wasn't his strong suit. Yet, here he was, preparing to go out and fight Grimm. With any luck, initiation didn't involve purposefully getting into fights, and his potential partner would be as equally adverse to getting into scrapes. Sure, he'd had to fight something eventually, but the less he had to stick his neck out on pointless endeavors, the easier his time at Beacon would be.

As he walked toward the exit to the locker room, a familiar, haughty voice caught Jaune's attention. He froze in his tracks and turned his head to see Weiss Schnee, appearing to have cornered Pyrrha against the lockers. "So, what do you think? With my brains and connections, and your skills and fame, we could make an unbeatable team!"

"Um...yeah…" Pyrrha trailed off, not meeting Weiss' eager gaze.

"Hello there, Snow Angel, I heard you were looking for a partner. You know, I'm _totally_ free." Jaune slid into view between Pyrrha and Weiss, grinning wildly at Weiss and winking, making finger guns at her. It was taking every ounce of willpower he had not to burst out laughing at the expression slowly dawning on the Heiress' face.

Weiss glared. "Ex- _cuse_ me! I was talking to Pyrrha here!"

"Oh?" Jaune turned his head to look over his shoulder. "Well, I suppose if you want, there _is_ an opening on Team Jaune." He turned back to Weiss and raised an eyebrow. "So how about it, Snow Angel? You and I as partners? No, wait, you don't need to say anything, it's written all over your face. I know you can't wait to partner up with me-"

Weiss' eyes narrowed, and her gaze flickered over Jaune's shoulder at Pyrrha. "Pyrrha?"

Jaune opened his mouth to speak, but found his words cut off as _something_ flung him violently into a locker, leaving him hanging by his hoodie. Stunned by the sudden movement, he glanced upward to see a bronze spear pinning him to the locker. Weiss walked by with Pyrrha in tow, and the spear was pulled from the locker and into Pyrrha's hand as she passed, with a small, "I'm sorry," murmured under her breath. Jaune sat on the floor, putting his finger into the hole that Pyrrha's spear had put into the hood of his hoodie, mouthing something silently.

" _Rude!_ " Jaune snapped angrily at the retreating form of both girls, glaring.

"You alright?" Yang's voice spoke up as she and Ruby walked up to him, both of them armed for initiation.

Jaune stood to his feet, glowering. "No, I'm not. What the hell is her issue? I mean, I get little miss Ice Queen's issue with me, but I thought that Pyrrha girl was better than that. Guess she's stuck up too." He dusted off his hoodie and turned away, talking to the door. "Guess being on the front of a cereal box can give someone an inflated head…" As Jaune walked out the door, Yang and Ruby exchanged glances and shrugged silently before following behind. The three made their way through the halls and outside into the Bullhead Landing Zone, the students slowly shuffling into the Bullheads.

Jaune looked over his shoulder to Ruby and Yang. Yang raised an eyebrow and Ruby smiled, albeit nervously. "You guys ready?"

Yang grinned. "Born ready."

Ruby nodded. "Yeah. You?"

A smirk began to slowly form over Jaune's face. "Yep. Let's fly." With that, he turned back to the Bullhead and walked forward, hands in his pockets and his heart pounding in his chest. His first test during his time as a Huntsman, however brief, was about to begin…

And he'd complete it with style.

* * *

 **A/N: Yeah, I know, not as long as the previous chapter, but I figure right before Initiation would be a great place to stop. The next chapter is going to be the full Initiation up to the completion of teams, then we'll start the set-up to the first full heist of New Moon Waltz. This chapter might seem a bit slow, but one of the things I want to do with this is to tell Jaune's backstory in this piece by piece as opposed to just dumping it on people, as well as show how some relationships are going to change in this. As you can see, Jaune didn't take Pyrrha pinning him to the locker kindly, despite their pleasant earlier chat, and this action is going to change the dynamic between the two of them for a while to come. Plus, being raised by his uncle has caused him to prematurely judge Weiss a bit harshly and thus, his 'flirtations' in this are more for irritation than honesty.**

 **Another thing I wanted to bring up is the "Mask Effect." A lot of people seem to expect Jaune to act completely different due to being brought up by Thaddeus, and while there are** _ **some**_ **changes, this is still Jaune, with all the dorkiness that entails. Putting on the mask acts almost like a sort of 'trigger,' and because of the confidence it instills in him, it'll seem like he's got an entirely different personality. While this Jaune** _ **does**_ **have more self-confidence than in canon, he's still going to have his issues. The "Mask Effect," will play a large role in this story, not just with Jaune but with a few other characters as well, but I'll leave that for later.**

 **Signing off for now, this is LaughingLefou.**

* * *

 **B/N : WarrenDSherman here. It's been interesting, watching this develop and grow. It will be a curious ride, seeing how this chapter's incidents will change Jaune and Pyrrha's dynamics.**

* * *

 **Hey there, do you enjoy the spiffy new cover art? Well, I certainly do! And it's all thanks to my temp beta here, WarrenDSherman. Speaking of whom, after you're done reading this, check out his work! He's got an awesome and fairly dramatic story, "From Embers to Dust" and he's been working on a Noir-esque story that features Neo, Pyrrha and Jaune, and I'm seriously looking forward to it. So give this guy some love, and follow him for some wonderful writing as good as his artwork!**


	4. Tailwind

**The Phantom Nevermore: New Moon Waltz**

 **Chapter 3: Tailwind**

* * *

"...do not hesitate to destroy everything in your path. Your partner for the next four years will be the first person you make eye contact with." Ozpin explained. Before him, standing in a row upon a cliffside overlooking a picturesque forest, the prospective students of Beacon Academy stood. Ozpin had revealed their mission; to traverse the Emerald Forest for varying relics and return to the cliffside to complete initiation. Everything had seemed so far, so good for Jaune. Search and return safely? Now that was something he could do in his sleep. He could even avoid the Grimm through stealth, assuming that whoever his partner was wasn't some bloodthirsty combat maniac, or didn't have some sort of hero complex. Jaune looked down, a wry smile stretched across his face. Being launched into the Emerald Forest via pneumatic catapult wasn't exactly how he wanted to start his morning, but there he was.

Countless repetitions of parkour courses set up by his uncle however, had given him an edge when it came to finding things like 'landing strategies,' so he wasn't worried about that. It was trying to find his way through unfamiliar territory with a minimum of conflict that was forefront in his mind. Plus, he had to find himself a partner, and preferably one who not only wanted to avoid conflict as well, but would give him enough space to do what he came to Beacon to do without sticking their nose in his business. All in all, his work was cut out for him. Even as the first few students were launched into the air, Jaune was making a mental note of the students he'd want to watch out for. Weiss was insufferable, and as entertaining as being near her and taking advantage of the situation would be, it would quickly grow tiring. Pyrrha seemed well known if word through the locker room and Weiss' opinion were anything to go by, and that would attract scrutiny. Plus, if her behavior in the lockers was anything to go by, she was unpleasant to be around as well.

More students were launched. A quiet boy in green and a girl in black looked both viable; they weren't vibrating with the absurd energy people like Ruby were. He watched as one, then the other was launched, making a note of where they might land. Closer and closer the catapults came to him, when a thought suddenly occurred. "Headmaster Ozpin?"

"Yes, Mr. Arc?"

Jaune paused, watching a couple more people flying off into the distance, then turned back to Ozpin. "Our mission is to simply retrieve a relic and return, right?"

"Indeed, Mr. Arc."

"So, if I were to say, sneak my way through the Emerald Forest without encountering any Grimm and return, I'd _technically_ still pass, right?" Jaune queried.

Ozpin sipped on his drink, the ghost of a smile playing about his lips. "Indeed, Mr. Arc. If you can succeed on such a thing."

Jaune smirked, watching the catapults firing closer and closer as he tensed his body, took a deep breath, and with the sound of a pneumatic piston firing off, was flung into the air. The wind howled around him as he flew through the air, his mind already trying to calculate the approximate area he'd land and how he'd land without taking serious damage. _Mental note to self; thank Thaddeus again for the parkour training. Actually, I don't think I could thank him enough for that._ Jaune shook his head, clearing his thoughts. The landing was coming quicker than he'd thought. The treetops came at him closer and faster, Jaune tucking his body into a ball before he pierced the treeline, small branches snapping under his figure. He unsheathed his knives and as a much thicker branch came into view, reached forward to stab the branch. His trajectory abruptly changed and he flipped around the branch back into the air directly above it. With practiced movements, the lanky blond landed atop the branch and balanced atop it.

 _Well. That's one challenge down. Let's see if we can't keep it to just that._ Jaune glanced about at the forest floor, observing his surroundings. Sight, sound and even smell told him he was alone. He sheathed his knives and began to make his way across the treetops, jogging at a light sprint and jumping from branch to branch. It could have been his uncle's training, or perhaps it was because he wanted to avoid combat, but Jaune's travel was quiet, his footsteps inaudible over the ambient noises from the forest around him. Pausing every so often to check his Scroll for direction, Jaune made a beeline right for the clearing where Ozpin had mentioned the relics lay. However, the easy travel only lasted for so long, until eventually the treeline broke, leaving a large clearing with a number of Beowolves loitering about. Jaune sighed, frowning. _So much for not running into Grimm. They don't look too hard though. If I'm careful, I could probably take out a couple of them before they even notice me._

Jaune slowly unsheathed one of his kukri blades and licked the finger of his other hand, holding it aloft to check the wind direction. He smiled; he was downwind, which gave him an advantage. He could still give himself away via sound, but he hadn't been trained nearly nonstop for four years by his uncle to give himself away to a rookie mistake. He dropped down to the forest floor without a sound, approaching closer. There were five Beowolves in total, two of them close by and the other three more distant. One of them might have been able to see him, but between the glare of the sunlight above and the darkness of the treeline, it was unlikely. He'd have enough time to take out the two closest, assuming he wasn't clumsy. With measured footsteps, he carefully approached the closest Grimm, unsheathing his second knife as he did so. He very slowly filled his lungs with air, tensed his body…

..and leaped forward, plunging one of his kukri blades into the base of one Beowolf's skull. Before the other one could so much as utter a sound, the other kukri knife flashed silver and separated the beast's head from its shoulders. Unsurprisingly, this didn't go unnoticed by the three other lupine beasts who zeroed in quickly, growling. Jaune sighed, slamming the butt of both knives together with a metallic ' _click!_ ' The result had the knives conjoined, blades facing away from each other. With a quick twirl and a flick of his wrist, Jaune tossed the knives, causing them to fly forward spinning, a flash of silver in the midday sun that removed the head from one Grimm before it even knew what was happening. The knives continued flying across the clearing, and began to bank right, making its way back toward Jaune like a boomerang. Unfortunately, the closest of the three Grimm had gotten too close to Jaune for him to let the knives finish it off as well. Instead, with a slight grimace, the blond rushed forward, ducking underneath a swipe of razor sharp claws, and clamped a hand down on the creature's shoulder, flipping himself over the beast and landing behind it, just in time to reach out and grab the flying knives with one hand.

A growl and a mass of black fur alerted him to the third Beowolf bearing down on him. Jaune smirked, ducking down under another swipe, then rose quickly to his feet as his kukri blade sliced through the air, then through the beast's head, removing it with ease. He flipped the knife in his hand and turned a quick 180 on his heels, ready to bury the knife into the third Beowolf-

 _CRACK!_

A gunshot echoed through the clearing, making Jaune jump with surprise, a small hole opening up in the Beowolf's skull. The beast slumped forward, turning quickly to smoke. Jaune himself froze and gazed about, trying to figure out who had taken the last kill. Blue eyes glanced about the treeline as he advanced toward the gunshot, when they abruptly locked onto an emerald green gaze. "Oh, hello again!"

 _...Fuck._ Jaune struggled to keep his face impassive and not reveal his displeasure at finding himself locking eyes with none other than Pyrrha Nikos herself. Instead, he drew his lips into a thin line and sheathed his blades. Both his and Pyrrha's scrolls made a beeping noise, and when Jaune drew it out, he noticed a message on it confirming his dread. ' _Pyrrha Nikos and Jaune Arc: Partners; confirmed._ ' He sighed and put the scroll away before turning back to Pyrrha, who was standing slightly awkwardly with a smile still on her face. "I could have gotten that, you know." He muttered, his expression flat.

"I-I'm sorry. I just wanted to help, that's all." Pyrrha explained. "It looks like we're partners now. It's nice to work with you." With that, the champion extended a hand, still smiling warmly. Jaune looked down at her hand, then back up at her.

"Sure." Jaune replied flatly, turning on his heel. Pyrrha stiffened, looking uneasy. "Let's be on our way then, yeah?" He began to walk away from Pyrrha, who stood in place momentarily, frowning. Had she offended him? He'd seemed so friendly earlier, but now... She shook her head and took a breath. They'd be partners for the next four years, so she'd make this work…

* * *

 **[Emerald Forest - Center]**

* * *

Things couldn't have gotten much more awkward, Pyrrha had decided. Since they'd began their journey forth, Jaune had only responded to her tentative attempts to start conversation with the occasional grunt or short response, killing the attempt before it could gain steam. Eventually, she'd given up, instead following close behind him as they made their way through the forest proper. There was one thing that Pyrrha noticed almost right away, and that was Jaune was exceptionally stealthy. His footfalls were nearly inaudible, just from the way he moved, and he seemed to take paths that cut through dense foliage to hide himself. It wasn't a bad idea, but something about it felt _wrong_. They were Hunters, were they not? Shouldn't they be walking through the forest with confidence, striking down the Grimm left and right?

Still, she remained silent. Things already seemed tense between the two of them for reasons that eluded her. In the training ground, he'd seemed so open and friendly, but now...was he simply just that focused upon their goal? Was he nervous? Pyrrha followed silently behind, trying to match his pace and not make any sound herself, her mind a whirl of thought. Her eyes flickered back and forth through the trees, seeing nothing. The path that Jaune was taking them through was bereft of Grimm entirely. Maybe he'd noticed signs of Grimm passing and he'd simply avoided it all? As she continued to watch for signs of any approaching Grimm, her eyes happened to fall upon the back of Jaune's hoodie, noticing a large hole in his hood. It hit her at once.

"U-Um...Jaune?" Pyrrha quietly spoke up.

"Hm." Jaune grunted, brushing aside an errant branch in his path.

"About earlier…"

Jaune paused and glanced over his shoulder, his expression unreadable. "What _about_ earlier?"

"I...I'm sorry. I-I hope I didn't hurt you…" Pyrrha murmured.

Her apology was met with silence. Jaune began to move forward once more, shuffling slowly through the foliage. Pyrrha followed once more, feeling even worse than before. She'd apologized, but it appeared as though he were unwilling to mend things. Then, just barely above the sound of the surroundings, Pyrrha picked up Jaune's voice. "Then why the hell did you do it?"

"I-" Pyrrha started, surprised. She sighed, then, "I did it simply because Weiss had asked and acted on reaction."

Jaune froze once more and turned to look over his shoulder at Pyrrha, but the look on his face had Pyrrha stiffen. It wasn't anger, but it was still unpleasant, almost a look of disgust or disdain. "Oh, _that's_ why?" He rolled his eyes and turned back around, moving once again, but now at a faster clip than before. Pyrrha winced. Things were not off to a good start at all, and Pyrrha sighed once more. All she wanted to do was to make a friend, but she only succeeded in driving one potential person away because she couldn't say 'no' to a fan. There had to be _some_ way to come to terms though! She steeled herself and moved faster through the bushes and trees to catch up to Jaune.

"Jaune, I-" Pyrrha started once more, but was abruptly shushed by Jaune. He'd stopped a third time, pressing himself against the trunk of a large tree. Pyrrha went quiet as well, listening out, when a sharp _crack_ echoed through the trees, and her body instinctively tensed up. "A gunshot. Our allies are in trouble." Pyrrha unsheathed her spear and shield, facing the direction the sound came from.

"You're not." Jaune replied, glancing at her with ill disguised irritation.

"Excuse me?" Pyrrha blinked, confused.

Jaune pinched the bridge of his nose. "Look, I don't know if you haven't figured it out from the past fifteen, twenty minutes or so, but I'm not much one for conflict and I'd much rather _not_ go running through the forest and attracting every Grimm between here and wherever there is."

Pyrrha blinked, her expression slowly turning incredulous. "You can't mean to say you're just going to abandon a fellow Huntsman!?"

" _Huntsman_." Jaune emphasized. "Trained in combat and most likely with another partner. If we go trapezing all over the forest to go play hero, we're going to attract any number of Grimm." He explained slowly, as though to a five year old. "If we stop to fight them all, we might be too late anyway, and if we don't, we're only bringing Grimm to another person's problem." Pyrrha opened her mouth to retort, and Jaune quickly cut her off with more, " _And_ , that was what, a single shot? For all we know, it was simply an errant Beowolf."

Pyrrha frowned deeper. "This is...absurd. They might need our help! It could be an ambush!"

"Alright, have fun." Jaune muttered. "My plan is to get in, grab the relic and get out, and I don't plan to change that."

Pyrrha gave a huff and gazed into the distance toward the gunshot, but heard nothing more, neither positive nor negative. Finally she shook her head and sheathed her spear and shield once again. "Very well. But...please, let's not dally too much?"

Unsurprisingly, Jaune fell silent once again. Instead, he simply turned away from Pyrrha once again, and began to make his way at a sprightly clip through the forest once more. Pyrrha stayed on his heels as the two made their way through the forest. Another gunshot sounded out, scattering birds out of the treetops and causing the duo to freeze in their tracks momentarily. Silence followed and Jaune, with a sigh, continued on his way through the forest…

* * *

 **[Emerald Forest - Ruins]**

* * *

The two had arrived to the moss covered stone ruins a bit faster than Jaune wanted, and a lot slower than Pyrrha desired. Jaune's desire to avoid as much conflict as possible had taken them on a direct course to the ruins, away from roads, but also not much faster than a snail's pace to keep his footfalls quiet. Pyrrha had managed to follow in like fashion, only creating noise a couple of times and earning nothing worse than an irritable wince from Jaune. Like before though, he made no attempt at trying to strike up conversation with her. Pyrrha hoped that this was just professionalism trumping social niceties, and that he'd be more personable back at Beacon proper.

When they'd emerged from the thicket, Pyrrha stood up straight for what felt like the first time in ages. The two had been hunched over for much of the trip in order to keep a low profile, and it had worked. "Well, that was...anticlimactic." Pyrrha replied, finishing her observation hesitantly.

"Good." Jaune replied shortly.

For Jaune, he couldn't have been more irritated. He _knew_ that being partnered with Pyrrha was one of the worst people he could be shackled with during his stay at Beacon, no matter how short or long. Ignoring her popularity and fame, Pyrrha didn't seem to be the type to appreciate caution or stealth. She was the type to go out of her way to 'save' others. In short, a busybody. In addition to that, she seemed to be far too curious for his own liking, constantly trying to to ask personal questions during the walk to the ruins. Worst of all though, was the simple and undeniable fact that Pyrrha Nikos, for all her fame in combat, appeared to be spineless. She seemed to simply accept his short behavior toward her, and seemed willing to do whatever anyone asked of her lest she offend them, if her acceding to Weiss' demands proved anything.

While that last point might make his true mission at Beacon Academy much easier, he found people like herself to be grating. Trying to ignore her behind him, Jaune walked toward a group of pillars still standing after centuries, covered in moss and plant life. Inside of them, a group of other students could be seen, holding objects aloft. Jaune assumed they were most likely the relics Ozpin spoke of, and smiled. He approached the group, noticing Yang chatting animatedly with the black haired girl with the bow he'd been scouting earlier. "Hey, Yang!"

"Arc! You made it!" Yang grinned, waving back to him.

Jaune put a hand to his chest, faking injury. "Yang, I'm hurt! To have such little faith in me?"

"Ooh, and I see you've managed to snag Nikos as your partner! Nice." Yang winked playfully.

Jaune's expression fell momentarily as he glanced to his partner who'd caught up with him, standing next to him before shrugging. "Sure. Anyway," Jaune continued, brushing aside Pyrrha's presence, "These are the relics?"

Yang glanced at Pyrrha and cocked an eyebrow, Pyrrha simply smiling nervously and shrugging listlessly. "Yeah, those are." Yang affirmed, following Jaune to the pedestals.

Jaune stared at the chess pieces, tapping his foot. "I wonder if this is some extra test," mused the blond boy, stroking his chin thoughtfully.

"Aren't you overthinking it?" Yang asked.

"Maybe." Jaune shrugged and grabbed the nearest piece; a white rook. "So who'd you grab as your partner?"

Yang pointed a thumb over her shoulder to a black haired girl standing off to the side looking quite aloof. "Blakey here."

The woman rolled her eyes. "Please don't call me that."

"Aw, come on Blakey, live a little!" Yang teased.

"I already do that; I don't need a terrible nickname to do so."

Jaune chuckled slightly, stopping quickly. Not out of fear of offending Blake, but out of the realization that he could have had someone quiet and unassuming like her as a partner instead of… Blue eyes glanced over to see his new 'partner' standing off to the side, looking awkward and he sighed. "Well, that was to head back. You coming with us, Yang?"

"I'll catch up, I kind of want to wait for Ruby to make sure she's okay."

Jaune nodded. "Not a bad idea. I'm sure she's fine though-"

 _CRASH!_

The sound of snapping branches and huffing breath alerted all four in the clearing and the four all turned to face it, weapons drawn. What they expected was a Grimm, and they weren't disappointed. What they _weren't_ expecting was to see said Grimm, an Ursa, being used as a means of transportation by a ginger haired girl. Nor were any of them expecting for the Ursa to come to a stop and proceed to fall over, the girl jumping off of it's back gracefully with a frown. "Aww, it's broken!" she complained.

"Nora, please, wait up!" a boy's voice called behind her

"Jeeze, keep up Renny! We really need to work on that stamina of yours!" Nora replied, arms akimbo.

Jaune sighed and shook his head. Were all Huntsmen just insane, or was it just him? He watched as the ginger skipped over to the pedestals and picked up the second White Rook, her teal eyes lighting up. "Ooh! I'm Queen of the Castle! I'm Queen of the Castle!" Nora singsonged, holding the piece aloft and twirling.

"Riiiight. Anyway, I'm heading back now. I'd rather not stick around incase something particularly nasty shows up-" Jaune began.

As if the universe had decided that today was when his accumulated bad karma was to be paid back in full, he wasn't able to finish his sentence before a black shadow passed over head, blotting out the sun, and a girl's voice shouted, "Look out!"

Jaune looked up and had only just enough time to catch someone falling out of the sky, who upon closer inspection was revealed to be one Ruby Rose. "Ruby?"

"Thanks Jaune! Wait, Weiss is still up there!" Ruby replied, hopping out of Jaune's arms with worry written all over her face.

Jaune, despite every nerve his body saying not to, glanced upward to see it. A Nevermore. The biggest he'd ever laid eyes on, and to make matters worse, it was flying low enough to have seen them, and for the gathered Huntsmen in training to notice one Weiss Schnee clinging to its feathers. Her grip must not have been too tight on it, however, as she seemed to slip off the creature's back and tumble to the ground below. Jaune heard Ruby shouting something, probably Weiss' name, but he couldn't tell. He was already moving the moment she slipped off the creature's back. He was a blur as he rushed forward and took a flying leap, catching Weiss in mid air. His mind and heart racing, he bent his legs and as the two hit the ground, knelt down to absorb some of the shock, wincing as pain shot up his legs. He thanked his Aura that he avoided breaking something.

"Jaune?" Weiss asked, eyes wide.

"Yeah, yeah, don't make a big deal of it." He replied, letting go of her. "We should get to cover."

Weiss blinked and shook her head. "Right." The two of them rushed back to meet the rest of the group.

"Weiss! I thought I lost you!" Ruby shouted as she rushed up to meet them.

"That's why I told you not to mess with that thing, you dolt!" Weiss screeched.

Jaune sighed. "I hate to agree with you, but you've got a point. Why did you think messing with a Nevermore the size of a Bullhead was a good idea Ruby?"

Ruby frowned. "But we're Huntsmen! We're supposed to fight Grimm!"

"Well," Yang started, catching up to the three, "Looks like we've really don't got a choice now do we?"

"Alright then, good luck!" Jaune replied, starting to walk away.

"Excuse me?!" Weiss shrieked, stomping her foot. "Where do you think you're going?!"

"Weiss is right," Pyrrha replied, frowning now, "You can't just walk away!"

Jaune blinked, and gave a deep, theatrical sigh. "All right boys and girls, here's a quick combat lesson from yours truly. You see this?" Jaune pulled on of his Kukri blades from his pocket and waved it in front of his face. "This is called a _knife._ Now, I don't know if you know what knives are used for, but they're used for _close ranged combat._ Now yes, I can throw them to give them some distance, but these are small blades, so unless that thing has an allergy to titanium alloy that I haven't been made aware of, I'm as useful as tits on a bull!"

Silence fell over the clearing, marred only by the sound of the Nevermore screeching overhead. Yang turned to Weiss. "He's got a point."

" _Ugh!_ " Weiss groaned. "Fine! Just stay out of my way! Useless…"

Jaune's glare sharpened. "Should have just let you fall…"

"Hey!" Weiss snapped back. "...and aren't you supposed to be in love with me or something?"

Jaune may have had a retort, but whatever it was, it was cut off when there was a sudden gust of wind and Jaune leaped back, a massive spear-like feather piercing the ground where he had been standing. "Okay, screw that, I'm out of here! You all have fun fighting a living aircraft."

Ren and Nora exchanged glances. "You know, he's got a point. Both you and I aren't ranged specialists either. It might be best to simply retreat using the forest canopy as cover."

"But what if the Nevermore follows us back?" Ruby cried out, glancing upward to see the beast in question circle around, no doubt ready for another strafing run.

"Follows us back _where?_ " Jaune asked, "Back to the Headmaster and Headmistress of Beacon Academy? If that thing even gets within range of sight to those two, I'd put money on that thing being taken down inside of five minutes. Right now, only you, Weiss and Pyrrha have the Semblance or Weapon designed to fight at such range, and unless that thing decides to play fair and land, we're all going to simply be no help. Besides, nowhere in our mission statement does it say we _needed_ to kill any number of Grimm. It was get in, grab a relic and return."

Ruby and Weiss exchanged glances. It was Yang who spoke up though. "I hate to admit it, but Jaune's got a point."

Ruby sighed. "We're Huntsmen though...we can't just abandon people if Grimm are too had to kill."

"And no one's life is in danger right now Ruby, at least no one who should be smart enough to avoid that thing." Jaune explained, now growing more antsy the longer they stood in the clearing. As if to punctuate his point, he began to start walking away before further discussion could continue.

Pyrrha looked up at the Nevermore and with a small noise of irritation, began to follow Jaune. Nora and Ren exchanged glances, Nora shrugging and they two followed close behind. Yang and Blake rushed off, and finally with a huff, Weiss stomped her foot again and stormed off, with Ruby racing to catch up to her. Above them, the Nevermore gave a loud screech as its soon to be prey vanished into the treeline…

* * *

 **[Emerald Forest - Overlook]**

* * *

"...Jaune _Arc_?" Glynda Goodwitch repeated, eyes slightly wide in mild shock. "As in the lost scion of the Arc family?"

Ozpin took a sip of his coffee as he watched said blond figure making his way through the brush once more, and by the expression on his face, he didn't seem to happy about it. It may have had something to do with the fact that one Nora Valkyrie had seen fit to make a commotion around him, and if his earlier behavior had been any indication, the boy prefered the stealthy approach. "Who is to say? The boy is seventeen; by Valian standards, he's independent. His paperwork checked out and while unorthodox, his methods _are_ effective. Besides, in the event we're wrong and this is simply coincidence, I don't wish to give the Arc family false hope. Surely if he _is_ the missing Arc, he has his reasons for having left his family."

Glynda's lips turned downward. "They're good people, Ozpin. Losing their son was a major blow for them."

"Would you be the one who wants to explain to them why we brought their hopes up if Mr. Arc turns out to _not_ be their son?" Ozpin slowly cocked an eyebrow, punctuating his question with another sip from his seemingly bottomless mug. Glynda's only response was to sigh, drawing her lips into a thin line. "Aside from that, another concern does come to mind."

"Is it about Amber?"

"Atop her, I'm afraid. An old friend has decided to come back to Vale. His timing is far to coincidental for my tastes."

"You say the world 'friend' like an insult." Glynda mused.

Ozpin's eyes narrowed as he scrolled through more camera feeds. "As it's meant to be."

"Do you think he's here for Amber? Or…?"

Her unspoken query was met with silence as Ozpin continued to watch the video feed on his Scroll with interest. Finally, "I should think not. Still, him arriving at such a time, and with everything that's been going on, it's still cause for concern. If I had to guess, I think he's decided to start teaching himself a protege."

It was Glynda's turn to narrow her gaze. "Oh wonderful. That's _exactly_ what we need now."

"Hm." Another sip. "I hate to say it, but he's the least of our concerns at the moment. When all this is over and the Fall Maiden is back in our hands we can focus on him, but until then, we continue to focus upon more pressing matters."

"Then why bring it up, sir?"

Ozpin's lips twitched. "Simply just telling you to keep an eye out." The old man watched as eight Huntsmen made their way back to cliffside, ready to make their way up with Jaune at the head…

* * *

 **[Beacon Academy - Auditorium]**

* * *

"...Ruby Rose, Weiss Schnee, Yang Xiao Long and Blake Belladonna; you will form Team RWBY, _as led by Ruby Rose!_ "

"Way to go!" Yang shouted, clapping her sister on the shoulder. Weiss Schnee gave a very brittle smile and Blake simply gave a wry smile, as though simply accepting the turn of events.

Ozpin cleared his throat and the applause in the auditorium died down. "Jaune Arc, Pyrrha Nikos, Nora Valkyrie and Lie Ren...you shall form Team JNPR, _as led by Jaune Arc!_ " More applause.

Jaune froze. He could hear Nora yelling something and felt Pyrrha's hand on his shoulder, but his entire thought processes came to a screeching halt. Him? _Leader?!_ No, this would not do. This would not do _at all_. He had a job to do, and being the leader of a team would put an undue burden on him as well as plenty of unwelcome attention. Hell, being part of a four man cell was going to be difficult enough to juggle with his true profession, but having to lead them as well? Was Ozpin out of his mind? He'd ran away from the battle with the Nevermore and even convinced the rest of the prospective Huntsmen to do the same! As his mind raced, he didn't seem to acknowledge Pyrrha's concerned and confused words, nor did he react to Nora jostling him as she shouted in excitement.

It was only when Ozpin and Glynda began to walk away from the podium where the student teams had been announced, and all the other students began to make their way back to their dorms, when Jaune suddenly moved, startling Pyrrha and Nora in the process. He ignored their cries and jogged off to catch up to Ozpin. "Headmaster Ozpin! Headmaster Ozpin!" Jaune exclaimed, causing both said Headmaster and Headmistress Goodwitch to pause, turning to face him.

"Mr Arc? Is something the matter?" Ozpin asked, raising a single eyebrow.

"There's been a _gross_ misunderstanding. See, I don't know how much of the whole Initiation you saw, but I am the _last_ person who should be Team Leader."

"Oh? Why would you say that, Mr. Arc?"

"Instead of standing my ground and fighting like a Huntsman, I decided to avoid a Giant Nevermore and convinced others to do the same! I-I mean, obviously someone who'd flee from combat wouldn't make for a good leader, right?"

"Is that what you called it? That's not how I saw it. I saw a young man accurately gauge the situation, make an informed decision and convince others to do the same. The mission was to simply get the relics, and you did so with a minimum of fuss and conflict. We are warriors, yes, but if we went chasing every Grimm we ran across, there'd be very few of us left. We have need of Huntsmen of every skill." Ozpin explained, sipping on his coffee with a small smile. "No, Mr. Arc, I have watched your every move since you've arrived here at Beacon Academy, and I can safely say with confidence that my choice was made with consideration. Now, if you'll excuse me Mr. Arc, I must be off. You might want to leave to your Dorm Room; you're the only one with the location of it on your team."

With that, Ozpin began to walk away, leaving Jaune standing in the hallway, jaw hanging open with his expression torn between disbelief and anger…

* * *

 **A/N: Yep, I'm back. Check my profile for more info.**

 **Okay, so real quick here: This is** _ **NOT**_ **a Pyrrha bashing fic. I understand that might be what it seems like, but I want to make it 100% clear here, Jaune's behavior isn't supposed to be seen as a good thing. Yes, he** _ **does**_ **have a point when it comes to Pyrrha's behavior, but being as big an ass as he is isn't supposed to be good. There's a reason for this, and I promise we will get into this, but I want to remind people that I do not hate Pyrrha, and in fact hope to do more with her character in this, than the show did with her.**

 **Signing off for now, this is LaughingLefou.**


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